One student’s concern with how he is, and is not, able to use his Simon Fraser University recreation pass has him taking his concerns to the SFSS Board of Directors.
Madhev Menon, a business student at SFU, frequently has semesters where all of his classes are at the Burnaby campus, as that is where the classes for his program are held.
Menon lives in White Rock, and while he has no problem commuting to the mountain for classes, he wants to be able to use the SFU rec facility at Surrey campus. It is closer to him and makes going to the gym much easier.
When he asked to switch over his membership from Burnaby to Surrey, he was denied, leading to his eventual complaint with the SFSS. He hopes some change can come from this situation.
“Imagine the struggles for many kids who have to take classes out in Burnaby, because that’s where most of our classes are,” said Menon.
“I’ve learned it’s around $70 a semester for the pass, and I don’t even get access to it and we are a commuter school [. . .] I’m pretty sure a large population of SFU doesn’t live on campus and commutes to different campuses.”
“We should have access to all the facilities they provide to us,” said Menon.
The full SFU Recreation – Athletics fee for 2016 is $72.49 per semester for undergraduate students enrolled in four or more units. According to SFU’s website, the pass allows students different facilities depending on which recreation pass students hold: Burnaby, Surrey, or Vancouver.
Menon ended up buying a pass to for the Surrey campus, on top of the Burnaby pass that he had already paid for.
This was back in the summer semester, and for this semester, he has the majority of his classes in Surrey, so he is currently able to get a pass close to home, and uses it about four or five times a week. He is worried that he’ll have to go through this procedure again, as early as the next summer semester.
The Peak reached out to SFU Recreation Services for comment. Theresa Hanson, Senior Director of Athletics and Recreation responded in an email that “[Rec is] not in business to compete with private fitness clubs or municipal recreation services.
“Our goal is to provide students with access to services while they are studying so they can lead a healthy lifestyle.”
She continued, “Our mandate is to provide students with affordable access to recreational services where they study rather than where they live.
She did acknowledge that “students taking courses at more than one campus have the option to choose which campus recreational services they would prefer to use,” although this would not apply to students like Menon who get stuck taking all their classes at a single campus.
Hanson continued, “providing universal access for every student at every campus is not feasible without significantly increasing the supplemental student services and recreation-athletics fee and we believe the majority of students would not support this.”
The Peak asked by email “what would be required to open up all rec facilities to all SFU students?” to which Hanson responded “Our mandate is to offer recreation opportunities to students based on where they attend classes. We are pleased to provide affordable opportunities to best fit with the needs of our diverse student population within our multi-campus university.”
Menon, however, argues that all rec services should be open to every student.
“The school is kids who mainly commute, so we should have access to all facilities [. . .] based on where we live,” he said.
“If most lived on campus, then that would make more sense to segregate this, but if we’re all coming from different areas then we should have access.”
Yes!!!!!! I’ve wished for this for a long time