U of T students can call Varsity Centre their own for at least the coming year, thanks to the approval of the Faculty of Physical Education and Health’s interim co-curricular budget by the University Affairs Board on April 17th.  The budget, which includes a $9 per term fee increase for full-time St. George students, ensures that students will have preferred use of the state-of-the-art new field, including during the winter months under the air-supported dome. Students at UTM and UTSC will not pay the increased fee.

Sometime in the 2007-08 academic year, the University of Toronto Students Union (UTSU), formerly the Students Administrative Council, will ask undergraduate students whether they want to keep priority access to Varsity Centre and the fee for good.

The budget approval comes after weeks of debate surrounding student support for the state-of-the-art new facility.  On March 2nd, the student unions on the Council of Student Services (COSS) rejected the proposed budget, which included a $10 per term increase for full-time students.

The rejected fee would have translated into $750,000 in lost revenue annually, forcing the university to increase community rentals.  “We would have been required to rent Varsity Stadium for most of the summer and winter months to pay for student programs in the fall, so students would not have had access to the dome in winter,” says Bruce Kidd, dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Health. 

But that worst case scenario was avoided, thanks to a spirited campaign by students who support athletics and a series of cooperative meetings between students on the Council of Athletics and Recreation and students on UTSU. The UTSU suggested the compromise – a $9 fee increase for one year and a UTSU referendum next year. The end result was a second – and successful – COSS vote, followed by approval at University Affairs Board. 

“The student support was difficult for UTSU to ignore,” says Masha Sidorova, a third year physical health education student and co-chair of U of T’s Council for Athletics and Recreation.  “We are grateful that this facility will serve its intended purpose.”

“Our vision has always been to devote 75% of Varsity Centre time to students, and the new supplementary budget makes that vision a reality,” says Kidd.  “I’m thrilled by that. I give full marks to Adam [Pomper, CAR co-chair], Masha and the student leaders on CAR and the Intramural Sports Council for their campaign to ‘save the dome for students’, and to the willingness of UTSU leaders to listen. In future years, I hope that these discussions will occur much earlier, and within the CAR process, but the compromise that enabled the supplementary budget to be passed is an encouraging start.”

The interim budget also means that the popular Tri-Campus intramural program will continue and the proposed student user fees for intramurals and golf at the dome will be eliminated.

Other stories about the Varsity Centre budget:
“Keeping Varsity Centre for the Students: Faculty seeks student support to make vision a reality”