Board passes future fee

Dal students will be helping pay for a massive overhaul of theuniversity’s fitness and recreation facilities with a newstudent fee. The good news: the $180 fee won’t appear onstudents’ bills until after a proposed new South StreetFitness Centre is open for use.

That’s still a few years away. The Dalhousie Campus Planproposes that a new fitness centre be built on the space currentlyoccupied by the aging Eliza Ritchie Hall. The universitywon’t be able to spare those beds until a mixed-use buildingon LeMarchant Street with 300 new residence spaces is built bySeptember 2012. That means the earliest expected opening date for afitness centre is sometime in 2014, at which point full-time Dalstudents would begin paying $90 per term.

The university considers the permanent fee as the only feasibleway to address Dalhousie’s aging recreation facilities andsustain their operations while still addressing competingpriorities for deferred maintenance in teaching and research space.The fee will be reviewed every five years.

Fee applied when facility opens

“I’m not aware of another Canadian university takingsuch an innovative approach to funding such an importantproject,” says Marc Braithwaite, university executivedirector of student wellness, referring to the fee not beingapplied until the new facility is open. “It’s both fairto students and encourages the university to move ahead right awaywith broad consultations, planning and facility design. I’mconfident our future students will appreciate the decisions madetoday by our current student leaders."

In addition to helping fund the new $30-40 million facility onSouth Street, the Fitness and Recreation Facility Renewal Fee willalso support upgrades to existing Dalplex facilities – fromlighting and air conditioning to washrooms and locker rooms –along with new team and change facilities on Studley campus andsignificant expansions to fitness facilities on Sexton Campus. Theentire cost of the project is currently estimated in the range of$55 million. The student fee will enable equipment leasing andfinancing of approximately $20 to $25 million of the total projectmortgage.

The state of Dalhousie’s athletic facilities has been aconcern for years. In 2006, 5,200 students took part in auniversity survey about facilities on campus and gave over 400pages of comments – the vast majority negative. In the 2009Canadian University Survey Consortium survey, student satisfactionwith athletics facilities on campus was far lower than all otherservices on campus. In preparing the fee proposal, the universityfurther consulted with student leaders across campus, from theDalhousie Student Union, to faculty-based societies, to residencecouncils.

“What we heard from many students was, ‘we wish thatstudents five years ago had been having these conversations sowe’d get to see the results now in 2010,’” saysMr. Braithwaite. “They know they’re leaving a legacy.They know this is important.”

'Huge benefit'

DSU President Shannon Zimmerman says DSU council, for the mostpart, has agreed to support the fee, although she acknowledges thatthey would have liked to have seen the most recent consultationprocess extended to the student population at large.

“We’re disappointed that nothing specific to the feewas taken to the student body as a whole,” she says.“That said, we definitely see the huge benefit to theuniversity of having better recreation facilities, both at Dalplexand on Sexton campus.”

She was also pleased that the Board of Governors, which approvedthe fee last week, accepted her friendly amendment to reduce thereview period from 10 years to five, as the fee’s permanencywas a sticking point for some student leaders.

With the student fee approved, conceptual planning for theproject will commence this year. Mr. Braithwaite says that theuniversity plans to keep students closely involved as the projectmoves forward, both in terms of designing the facility and keepingthe university accountable in making use of the funds.

“It’s students’ money, after all,” hesays. “This is a facility fee for infrastructure. Itcan’t leak into varsity or other programs. It’simportant that we use it to continue to improve our athleticfacilities so that we don’t end up in the same place 20 yearsfrom now.”