Carl Kinsella | Sports Editor
A preferendum to be held next week alongside class rep elections will give students students a choice of three college Sports Centre fee models. Students will have the option to choose between a fee of €90, as it stands at the moment, a fee of €120 or a fee of €160.
The option chosen by students will then precede to a referendum, which, if passed, will set long-term Students’ Union policy and will mandate the union to campaign for that option.
Currently, students pay a Sports Centre charge of €90 euro along with their registration fee. Consultation between the Department of Sport and the Students’ Union have revealed that increasingly problematic budget constraints as well as an increase in the level of non-student membership necessitate a re-consideration of how much funding Trinity’s sports facilities receive from the students themselves.
The preferendum options are to seek to maintain the current charge at €90, agree to increase the charge to €120, or to go even further and agree to pay €160 euro at the start of each year. Management of the Department of Sport estimate that a reluctance in the student body to shift from the current charge will be detrimental to the department’s long-term plans, and external membership of the sports centre will have to increase. Furthermore, if the status quo is maintained, “students will not be able to access the centre at peak times without paying a charge per visit”.
Conversely, an increase to €120 would allow the Sports Centre to maintain its current ratio of student to non-student membership, as well as provide students with new facilities such as increased 5-a-side provisions, a new fitness theatre space in the centre, and improved development programmes for Trinity sports scholarships, to be in effect as soon as the next academic year. Agreeing to the largest possible increase in the charge, €160, would see students accrue further benefits, such as “the development of top-class outdoor sports facilities in Santry and the Boathouse in Islandbridge”. Such an increase would also free up funding for a ‘state-of-the-art squash court and a rifle range’.
TCDSU President, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, was keen to emphasise the importance of student engagement with this issue, citing other recent referendums and preferendums that have made an impact in the structure of college decision-making. McGlacken-Byrne accepts that the issue of increasing student funding for the sports centre or seeing a reduction of the services by the sports centre is indeed a “tough question”, but made it clear that he would lobby extensively for whatever outcome the students choose, saying “we underestimate the power of our voice as a collective union at our peril”.
Preferendums allow students to give guidance to the Students’ Union with regards to future referendum decisions, and are typically non-binding. The result of this preferendum, however, is mandated to proceed to referendum stage.
This preferendum comes as a result of a motion passed by the Students’ Union Council on March 25th of this year, which mandated a preferendum on the Sports Centre fee, as well as the follow-up referendum.
The preferendum will be held in conjunction with class rep elections, and students will be able to cast their votes from September 30th until October 3rd.
