Vanier Gym Fee and a General Assembly October 23rd at UB
For the Fall semester of 2019, the Vanier College Students’ Association (VCSA) has decided to not allocate money to gym facilities fees within their budget, as they have been doing for the past couple of semesters.
When asking the President of the VCSA, Lucas Diacoumacos, the reason for the removal of the gym fees from the budget, he stated that the VCSA wanted to allocate more money towards matters that directly impact Vanier students.
He mentioned that they want to be able to represent a bigger proportion of the student population, rather than solely concentrating on those who use the gym facilities.
As an example, the president spoke about how the council has decided to cover half of the funding of twelve students who will travel to work with Humanitarian Aid.
Although this may look like the VCSA is taking away the importance of promoting healthy living and athletics, it is important to note that they have decided to promote them in different forms.
They are deciding to make sure Jake’s Cafe does not have any fast food, and that they only sell healthy foods. They have also allocated $500,000 to the Vanier football field, and they also award bursaries and scholarships to athletes.
However, it must be said that the removal of the gym fees from the VCSA budget impacts a lot of students, such as those who cannot afford a membership to a local gym, or those who believe that the gym fees should be a part of the budget of an association that represents the students.
There is a General Assembly (GA) being held on Wednesday, October 23rd, during Universal Break (12:30-2:00) in the D-Cafeteria.
The main purpose of this GA is to pass a motion on behalf of the student body to ensure that the gym fees are implemented into VCSA’s budget for three years. If you are for or against this motion, be sure to show up to the GA in order for your voice as a Vanier student will be heard.
The GA will need at least 70 students – or 1% of the student body – in order to commence and for motions to pass.
When speaking to the organizer of the GA Zara Fox, she said that there is almost no other service currently funded by the VCSA that has the ability to impact so many students at a minimal expenditure.
She concluded by explaining that keeping the gym memberships free is a great motivator to individual students to attend the gym, and she hopes to see everyone have their voices heard at the GA.
Written by: Maria Dryden
