U of R students want to get rid of mandatory gym fee

Mandatory fitness fees are annoying students at the University of Regina. 

All U of R students are required to pay a recreation and athletic fee, even the ones who do not wish to access the facilities or services. Because of this, some students feel they are being charged unfairly.  

The situation has not improved. This fall the fee was raised to $101,45, up from $98 dollars per semester.

“For someone like me who does not use the facilities very often, paying for this really sucks,” said third-year journalism student Nicole Garn. 

“I would rather spend that money on a gym membership somewhere else.”

Garn does not enjoy the provided space. In her opinion the facilities and services do not match up with the cost.

“The gym is way too tiny to serve the whole student body. There are a lot of free weights and not a whole lot of anything else.”

With the cost of living rising, people have to be more conscious about their spending habits. Under these circumstances having to pay for anything additional seems unfair to many students.

“That $100 could be someone’s grocery bill,” Garn said.

The fee was collected even when the gym was closed earlier in the pandemic. At that time most of the classes were taught online and many students were living outside of Regina.

“Having to pay for that when I was genuinely not even walking through the doors was the worst part,” Garn said.

Harold Riemer, Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, points out that the fee is more than a gym membership. As stated on the university’s website, the recreation and athletic fee is used to “provide partial funding for fitness, wellness, recreation, intramural, and sport-related programming, services, and facilities.” 

“The fee is used for all kinds of things. Those payments continued even though there were no students here,” Riemer said.

Jessica Yoganand (left) does not use the gym, but her friend Talia Bertrand-Medows goes occasionally.

Some students do not consider the fee to be problematic. Third-year economics student Jacob Lipp enjoys using the university’s gym to play basketball. He feels that the fee is reasonable, but supports the idea of people being able to opt out.

“As long as it does not have a huge effect on the quality of the gym,” Lipp said.

First-year student Camden Lahti goes to the gym occasionally. Like Lipp, he thinks that paying the recreation and athletic fee could be optional, but he considers it to be beneficial for the students. Another first-year student Jessica Yoganand, who does not use the gym, does not see the matter to be that simple.

“It is a good thing that I could go if I wanted to. However, sometimes I feel like it is a waste of money, as I do not have the time for it,” Yoganand said.

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