Changes to ease pressure on sports facilities
Published: 18 July 2014
The Sport and Recreation Service has announced changes to the membership arrangements for staff and others in a bid to ease current pressures on capacity and access to facilities.
The Sport and Recreation Service has announced changes to the membership arrangements for staff and others in a bid to ease current pressures on capacity and access to facilities. The popularity of the University’s sports facilities has seen severe overcrowding in areas and long queues for classes and gym equipment.
University of Glasgow Staff memberships will be restricted to 1,800 members. Staff on short term rolling contracts will be eligible only for monthly memberships and will be included in the 1,800 cap.
Affiliate staff membership will be restricted to 180 memberships for 2014/15. Staff currently in the category may renew at their expiry date subject to normal renewal conditions. Retired staff memberships are closed to new members.
The restrictions are aimed at safeguarding the quality of the Sport and Recreation facilities while ensuring they remain an asset for the entire University community to utilise. It is hoped the limits will be in place for just a year, until new facilities come on stream at the Stevenson Hive building currently being built on the corner of University Avenue/Kelvin Way and Gibson Street.
Julie Ommer, Director of Sport and Recreation Service, said: “On the positive side we have an incredibly high participation rates with over 12,000 student and 1,800 staff members. It is also clear that it is a service that’s valued by our international students with 80% sign-up rate.
“We did not take these decisions lightly, but we think it’s a balance that is even, fair and equitable. We would like to stress these restrictions are in place due to constraints on current facilities and the need to maximise the quality of experience we can offer our students and staff. When the Stevenson building extension opens in late 2015 all membership categories will be reviewed and new access options will be made available.”
The Graduate and Partner/Family memberships were closed to new memberships in October last year. There will be no membership price increases in 2014/15 and degree course students will see no changes in membership access.
For more information on Sport and Recreation visit: www.gla.ac.uk/sport/
First published: 18 July 2014
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