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Dal students will be helping pay for a massive overhaul of the university鈥檚 fitness and recreation facilities with a new student fee. The good news: the $180 fee won鈥檛 appear on students鈥� bills until after a proposed new South Street Fitness Centre is open for use.

That鈥檚 still a few years away. The Dalhousie Campus Plan proposes that a new fitness centre be built on the space currently occupied by the aging Eliza Ritchie Hall. The university won鈥檛 be able to spare those beds until a mixed-use building on LeMarchant Street with 300 new residence spaces is built by September 2012. That means the earliest expected opening date for a fitness centre is sometime in 2014, at which point full-time Dal students would begin paying $90 per term.

The university considers the permanent fee as the only feasible way to address Dalhousie鈥檚 aging recreation facilities and sustain their operations while still addressing competing priorities for deferred maintenance in teaching and research space. The fee will be reviewed every five years.

Fee applied when facility opens

鈥淚鈥檓 not aware of another Canadian university taking such an innovative approach to funding such an important project,鈥� says Marc Braithwaite, university executive director of student wellness, referring to the fee not being applied until the new facility is open. 鈥淚t鈥檚 both fair to students and encourages the university to move ahead right awaywith broad consultations, planning and facility design. I鈥檓 confident our future students will appreciate the decisions made today by our current student leaders."

In addition to helping fund the new $30-40 million facility on South Street, the Fitness and Recreation Facility Renewal Fee will also support upgrades to existing Dalplex facilities 鈥� from lighting and air conditioning to washrooms and locker rooms 鈥� along with new team and change facilities on Studley campus and significant expansions to fitness facilities on Sexton Campus. The entire cost of the project is currently estimated in the range of $55 million. The student fee will enable equipment leasing and financing of approximately $20 to $25 million of the total project mortgage.

The state of Dalhousie鈥檚 athletic facilities has been aconcern for years. In 2006, 5,200 students took part in a university survey about facilities on campus and gave over 400 pages of comments 鈥� the vast majority negative. In the 2009 Canadian University Survey Consortium survey, student satisfaction with athletics facilities on campus was far lower than all other services on campus. In preparing the fee proposal, the university further consulted with student leaders across campus, from the Dalhousie Student Union, to faculty-based societies, to residence councils.

鈥淲hat we heard from many students was, 鈥榳e wish that students five years ago had been having these conversations so we鈥檇 get to see the results now in 2010,鈥欌�� says Mr. Braithwaite. 鈥淭hey know they鈥檙e leaving a legacy. They know this is important.鈥�

'Huge benefit'

DSU President Shannon Zimmerman says DSU council, for the most part, has agreed to support the fee, although she acknowledges that they would have liked to have seen the most recent consultation process extended to the student population at large.

鈥淲e鈥檙e disappointed that nothing specific to the fee was taken to the student body as a whole,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat said, we definitely see the huge benefit to the university of having better recreation facilities, both at Dalplex and on Sexton campus.鈥�

She was also pleased that the Board of Governors, which approved the fee last week, accepted her friendly amendment to reduce the review period from 10 years to five, as the fee鈥檚 permanency was a sticking point for some student leaders.

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

鈥淚t鈥檚 students鈥� money, after all,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is a facility fee for infrastructure. It can鈥檛 leak into varsity or other programs. It鈥檚 important that we use it to continue to improve our athletic facilities so that we don鈥檛 end up in the same place 20 years from now.鈥�