prevent the proposed introduction of a fee for the Sports Pass.
Anonymous submitted on
Saturday 13th May 2023
Complete
The university should not seek to subsidise the cost of their extension to the Jubilee Sports Centre with current students who want to play sports.
The university has a duty of care to students- this includes promoting an active lifestyle and sports. The sports clubs provide positive press to the university and take the cost of running sessions away (with members running them themselves). The student population if deprived from this sport opportunity, would sink an already past capacity limited 'BE ACTIVE' programme.
The sports members should not be asked to subsidise the university's estate maintenance (as this is already part of fees and adds value to the university's offering and estate).
They should subsidise staffing- especially when also have general maintenance or administration or operation of the commercial gym pass.
Inflation is irrelevant- note how it is currently £0, if we apply an inflation rate of 50000%, it would still be £0. If it it to do with cost of living, making students more than double their sports costs would do the opposite of helping.
Responses
Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.
Students' Union replied on
Monday 26th Jun 2023 3:43pm
Thank you for your YMC. It's important to note that the sports pass price increase was a decision made by the university, and not the student's union which is a separate entity. From a student's union perspective, it has been my job to get studnet feedback and lobby the university. Earlier this year I initiated a student feedback survey regarding Southampton Sport's (under the university) choice. This had received over 800 responses which I had then presented these findings to Southampton Sport. We then followed up with a sports forum with a representative group of club committee member to best represent Team Southampton (so we had invited a collection of people from IM/AU, MA, indoor/outdoor, watersports, team/individual, etc.) hosted by Southampton Sport for these teams to raise concerns. Following from the sports survey and the forum, there were further internal conversations with Southampton Sport but they have decided to go ahead with the £45 sports pass fee, but for students that only participate in IM, this will be £35. Current action is still ongoing, with an action group formed with between the university and SUSU, and we aim to continue to lobby for student interests in spite of any decisions the university has settled on. Since Southampton Sport have settled on this price, we are looking to work with them to ensure their service provided to students will reflect the price students will be expected to pay, but also looking at how this would impact sports participation among the most vulnerable and how we can mitigate these effects. I do want you to know that the SU have tried their best to demonstrate the extent this will impact future students, but at the end of the day, the decision was not ours to make so we will continue to work as best as we can within the given circumstances. To flag any particular concerns please do recah out to me at vpsports@soton.ac.uk so I can continue to raise these with Southampton Sport.
It is also important that I clarify that the Jubilee extension fee will not be something covered by the sports pass. As VP Sports, you sit on the Jubilee Estates Plan, and I can confirm that all of this budget comes from a separate pot. The sports pass money will all go back into Southampton Sport and they have said that this will all go towards staff costs and facility maintenance.
Many thanks,
Casie VP Sports.
Actions
Forwarded to Vice President Sports
Friday 19th May 2023 9:32am
Comments
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