The price of your workout

A lovely article in the Daily Star today discusses the U of A's successful new Rec Center, highlighting its 'green' initiatives. What the article fails to address is the fact that the Rec Center has appealed to Student Services, ASUA and GPSC to raise fees up to $160 because they grossly underestimated the cost of running their new facilities (and, of course, because of budget cuts). For the new price they're asking, most of us could join a private gym.

Even more disconcerting is the not-so-neutrally worded Student Services survey sent out last week, asking if you totally love, really love, love or only kinda love the new rec center. With no room for comments, and a biased multiple-choice selection, the survey should really just go ahead and ask, "The rec is great and we gotta fund it, okay?"

Unfortunately, it seems that someone has convinced the health center to team up with the rec in requesting new fees. The survey doesn't give any indication of how the eventual fees will be divided up and spent. In fact, it states that 2/3 of students use the rec center and 1/2 use the health center, implying that the rec center is a more essential service. Well, when people go to the rec center, they pump iron (which is good for you). When they go to the health center, they are seriously ill, looking for mental counseling, trying to prevent disease, getting needed medications....

And to save you the time, we won't go on a rant here about the endless waste in the new rec (like flat screen t.v.s everywhere, student workers that just stand around and hang out, brand new machines instead of working used ones, etc.)

Frankly, in a town where it's possible to go out for a jog almost every day of the year, it's hard for us to understand prioritizing the rec center at the same level as a crucial service like campus health.