Petition To Have The Gym Restrictions Revoked

the evil lime

The reg fee pays for:

• SU activities
• Clubs
• Societies
• Gym & Pool
• The ongoing running of the Student Centre

If I recall correctly, the SU gets somewhere in the region of 60% of your reg fee.

Given those costs and the mortgage on the Student Centre (I don't think they've paid off the older bit yet), I don't think that they could afford to keep the lights on without alternate sources of income.

Also, I don't know the proportion, but a number of the public members are former students, who paid as much as, if not more than, you into the cost of building that place and may never have seen any benefit from it while actually at UCD.

Note: While a grad myself, I'm not a member of the gym. I'm just bored.

Fad

the evil lime wrote: »

The reg fee pays for:

• SU activities
• Clubs
• Societies
• Gym & Pool
• The ongoing running of the Student Centre

If I recall correctly, the SU gets somewhere in the region of 60% of your reg fee.

Given those costs and the mortgage on the Student Centre (I don't think they've paid off the older bit yet), I don't think that they could afford to keep the lights on without alternate sources of income.

Also, I don't know the proportion, but a number of the public members are former students, who paid as much as, if not more than, you into the cost of building that place and may never have seen any benefit from it while actually at UCD.

Note: While a grad myself, I'm not a member of the gym. I'm just bored.

The SU gets ~25 quid a head from the reg fee, they dont get anything from student centre levy.

Cody Pomeray

the evil lime wrote: »

Given those costs and the mortgage on the Student Centre (I don't think they've paid off the older bit yet), I don't think that they could afford to keep the lights on without alternate sources of income.

Two points.

1. To be fair, the back of the envelope calculations don't substantiate what you're saying. Mind you, they don't substantiate that the current situation is un-necessary either. All I am saying is that there is no immediate reason just to go along with the theory that "well they've chosen x, so x must be for our best".

2. Secondly, nobody is (or I am not, anyway) arguing that we should totally get rid of private funding. Why would we do that? All I am saying is that the current model might be wisely reviewed. Would it be viable to reduce the gym fee to 650 quid, for example, whilst re-instating regular hours for students? I think that's worth exploring.

a number of the public members are former students, who paid as much as,
if not more than, you into the cost of building that place and may never have
seen any benefit from it while actually at UCD.

Woah there. I am a postgraduate student with many years of UCD under my belt. Further, the student centre levy used to be about 60 quid, not the 200 odd it is these days. These students, at the end of their undergraduate studies, will have paid far more over their course than I did when I was on my undergrad.

ironclaw

NoCrackHaving wrote: »

What sane person would pay €800 for gym membership? It's insane.

Thats cheap. There are gyms in south Dublin that are close to €1500 / €2k a year.

AdamD

ironclaw wrote: »

Thats cheap. There are gyms in south Dublin that are close to €1500 / €2k a year.

That's not cheap at all. You can quite easily find gyms in south Dublin for 200-300 PA.

ironclaw

AdamD wrote: »

That's not cheap at all. You can quite easily find gyms in south Dublin for 200-300 PA.

Well the point was being made that €800 was expensive, when in fact its middle of the road on the grand scale of things. And of course, plenty of gyms sub-€400 in the locality.

UCDCritic

I've been told by staff there are about two thousand public members so do the maths.

They're bringing in about €1,600,000

We bring in far more, kick them out!

Raphael

They bring €1.6m directly to the gym. Students bring €4.16m to the student centre which includes the gym. Whether or not students or private members bring in more depends on how much of that €4.16m goes to the gym - which is to say that unless a third or more of that money is allocated to gym operation, private members are actually bringing in more money than students, and seriously subsidising the facility.

If we do assume, however, that students contribute equally - 1.6m, a third of the student centre levy per student, that means that the gym is costing as much to run as everything else combined - including any loan repayments that may be involved. That doesn't make sense to me, at all, so I'm going to go ahead and conclude that the gym is getting more of it's day to day finance from private members than the levy.

UCDCritic

Raphael wrote: »

They bring €1.6m directly to the gym. Students bring €4.16m to the student centre which includes the gym. Whether or not students or private members bring in more depends on how much of that €4.16m goes to the gym - which is to say that unless a third or more of that money is allocated to gym operation, private members are actually bringing in more money than students, and seriously subsidising the facility.

If we do assume, however, that students contribute equally - 1.6m, a third of the student centre levy per student, that means that the gym is costing as much to run as everything else combined - including any loan repayments that may be involved. That doesn't make sense to me, at all, so I'm going to go ahead and conclude that the gym is getting more of it's day to day finance from private members than the levy.

You're so logical, it hurts!!:)

I still passionately believe in equality and the abolition of a two tier membership second class citizen system.

SeaDaily

ironclaw wrote: »

Thats cheap. There are gyms in south Dublin that are close to €1500 / €2k a year.

Care to name a few of these gyms. I haven't heard of any being as expensive as this.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

You really don't know how lucky you are. I've just finished my degree in UCD and I'm now doing a masters in Imperial College London and the gym is TINY compared to UCD - and this is supposed to be the fifth best uni in the world!

While we only have to pay the equivalent of €45, the gym is so much worse than UCD's, all of the classes cost money, and the student fees are £9,000 minimum per year - for both undergrads and masters students!

It's only now I've realised what a good facility the UCD gym is and seeing this thread makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Raphael

UCDCritic wrote: »

<unacceptablepost>

Have an infraction for Personal Abuse. For future reference, please stay as close as possible to the top of this triangle:


Additionally, since beauty is subjective, I'm locking this thread to avoid confusion about who is permitted to reply.

Raphael

Ok, so by request, I've deleted a whole lot of posts and reopen this thread.

Please only post here if you're planning on engaging in civil debate/discussion. Anyone posting here to not do that will be infracted or banned. If there's too much of it, I'll relock the thread.

Sala

I have just joined the gym and to be fair the restricted hours is a big selling point. I dont think too many private members would join if this was revoked. I also paid towards it as a student through the levy but never got to use it. I would think most full time students would have plenty if hours to use it outside class time anyway

Ruski

Isn't that why the second gym is there? It's very much the same as the main one.

UCDCritic

Ruski wrote: »

Isn't that why the second gym is there? It's very much the same as the main one.

As stated before, the second gym gets really packed during the restricted hours. You can barely move.

That's due to it being peak hours, not due to the restrictions. If there was no performance gym and no restrictions it would be just as packed in the regular gym area.

UCDCritic

Deleted User wrote: »

That's due to it being peak hours, not due to the restrictions. If there was no performance gym and no restrictions it would be just as packed in the regular gym area.

What do you base your opinion on?

Johnny Derpp

Sounds like a lose lose situation.

Could always try banding together to ensure that the gym is a mess so that the public don't want to use it.

I've been a member of various gyms throughout my life, and the biggest problem with each of them, wasn't the equipment or lack thereof, but rather the other users.

UCDCritic

Johnny Derpp wrote: »

Could always try banding together to ensure that the gym is a mess so that the public don't want to use it.

I'm with you LOL (for any moderators lacking in a sense of humour I'm joking)

UCDCritic

UCDCritic wrote: »

What do you base your opinion on?

By being in the previous UCD gym during peak hours.