Chances are, even if you aren't a member, you've been inside the Ryerson Athletics Center, our subterranean sports facility beneath the Kerr Hall Quad. I like the facilities at the RAC, but there's been some rumblings that Ryerson is looking to give them a bit of a face-lift via a new building. I did a bit of research and found that the while the RAC looks pretty new to me, the building was completed over two decades ago in 1988. It was an even bigger surprise when Ivan Joseph, Ryerson's Athletics Director, informed me that it was originally built to accommodate a campus of 8500 people, a third of Ryerson's current estimated 25,000 population.
"Our facilities are overpacked," Joseph said, "We need to grow. We need to provide more opportunities for students."
While Ryerson is eager to pursue a new athletics facility, ultimately, they are leaving it up to the students. In order to pay for a new facility Ryerson would be required to increase Athletics fees on students' tuition by $126, raising the price from $61 to $187. Before they can proceed to do this, Ryerson will be holding a referendum on February 23rd, a voting process that will let the students decide whether they want Ryerson to go ahead with the project. Advantages of these new fees would include that it would make the new facility available to everyone with no extra membership fees incurred, and that the school wouldn't start charging students until the facilities would be completed; students in their third or fourth years can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they won't be charged for something they might not use.
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