Varsity Centre: Officially Yours

If you’ve walked down Devonshire Place on an average weekday evening, you’ve probably heard the hoots and hollers of dozens of intramural athletes burning off a little steam inside the dome at Varsity Centre. On March 25th, the University Affairs Board approved a permanent $9 athletic fee increase, ensuring that the sounds of students running, playing and simply having fun at U of T’s newest athletic facility won’t be silenced any time soon. “These results are a tremendous relief,” says FPEH Dean Bruce Kidd. “Now, all of us can plan and program for this exciting new facility on an ongoing basis, not a temporary basis. Despite all the challenge, it is a tremendous vote of confidence in what we do.”

Maintaining the fee increase – which was introduced on a one-year basis for 2007-2008 – means that students will continue to have top priority access to the facility, with outside parties able to rent Varsity Centre only 25 per cent of the time. This ensures that the 1,300-plus students who participate in intramural sports will continue to have access to the FIFA two-star rated turf, avoiding a return to the old days of long waiting lists and less-than-ideal facilities.

“There’s such a big difference between first year, when we had to play in the field house, and this year,” says fourth-year physical education and health student Michael Georgievski, an avid intramural soccer player. “The new field is perfect quality.”

The Varsity Centre fee was the subject of some controversy among student organizations, leading the University of Toronto Students Union to conducted a plebiscite in early March. Fifty-six per cent of voters agreed to pay the additional $9 per term, a result that contributed to a favourable recommendation of the increase by the Council on Student Services, the body which oversees increases in non-academic student fees. University Affairs Board concurred at its March 25 meeting and has recommended the fee to Governing Council for approval.

Though in his graduating year, Georgeivski is glad the University Affairs Board listened to the plebiscite results and opted to keep the dome for future U of T student-athletes first and foremost. He’s so enamored with the new facility that he plans to make use of it even after graduation. “I’m definitely going to come back and play for an alumni group!”