Ahsan Syed goes to Dalplex three or five times a week and thinks mandatory student memberships are a good idea. Photo: Charlene Davis

Opt-out debate over Dalplex membership

Walk into the Dalplex sports complex any day of the week and you're sure to find students dripping with sweat, pushing their body to the limits in the weight room, grooving out to fast-paced tunes in a fitness class or shooting hoops with their friends.

Emily Armstrong, 19, put down her weights long enough to explain why she doesn't mind paying the $96 fee that goes partly toward mandatory membership.

"I'm pretty active, so I'd probably get it anyway," she says, and sees it as Dalhousie University's way to push students to be more active.

Last year, the fee covered access to Dalplex - minus the cardio room - as well as fitness classes, intramural sports and court rentals. It also went to support a variety of other health and wellness services. The cost to use a gym in Halifax can be more than $400 for students. So even the $20-a-month extra to use the cardio room is a good deal.

But Megan Larsen, 21, doesn't agree. "Students should have a choice," she says. She thinks it's good to have the service available if students want to use it, but if they don't it's a waste.

Students used to have a choice. Shawn Fraser, senior manager of programs at Dalhousie's department of athletics and recreational services, says students have been paying Dalplex fees for more than two decades. Students voted and, since then, the fees have been mandatory.

Fraser added that it's primarily the "community side that tends to keep the lights on" though, not students.

Fraser says the student fees largely pay for programs that will help promote awareness of not just physical health, but overall health: nutritional, mental, emotional and spiritual.

While the student fee doesn't provide services other gyms do, such as cardio machines, the focus on healthy lifestyles for students is important.

"If we see people ducking off before an intramural game and having a cigarette we might want to recommend them to the Leave the Pack Behind initiative," said Fraser. That's a program to help people stop smoking.

"There's a lot of things that go into being well," said Fraser. "We're just a part of it."

Ahsan Syed, a 20-year-old Dalhousie pre-med student, tries to get to Dalplex three to five times a week. He thinks the fee is worth it.

"I find exercise even helps your cognition and just helps you in stress reduction and just getting your excess energy out."

Some students think more services should be free. Armstrong, for one, doesn't agree with the extra cost for the cardio room.

"If you're going to pay for a gym membership I'd rather have it as a whole."

Others don't like the fee at all. Larsen, who doesn't use the Dalplex or other health services, adds "it's hard to pay for tuition as it is."

But students accounted for 60 per cent of the 60,000 visits to fitness classes last year, showing that many are making use of their memberships.

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