[dropcap]Student[/dropcap] academic year membership in the DCU gym has risen by €10, with new equipment and extensions accounting for the rise.
The gym, which is under the control of the DCU board of directors, has said that the new full cardio zone, consisting of new treadmills and new bikes, and further expansion of the gym are what caused the rise.
Students now have to pay €205 for a membership that will last the length of the academic year, whereas last year it was €195 for the same period. Out of six colleges across Ireland, DCU and NUI Galway are the only two that charge students for membership.
Colleges such as University College Dublin, Trinity College, NUI Maynooth and University College Cork offer free gym membership to all of their students. However, the student levy fee that is imposed by these colleges is significantly higher than in DCU, where it is just €43, to include gym membership.
NUI Galway comes away worst, with a €224 student levy and also having to pay €250 for a 12 month gym membership, where in UCD, it is included in the €247 fee. The Kingfisher Gym in NUIG approached the Students Union asking if they could add €20 onto the levy and include gym membership, but was declined.
DCU gym is looking to bring in the addition of gym membership to the student levy “hopefully in five years time.”
DCU Students’ Union Welfare and Equality Officer, Cody Byrne, said the SU was initially in opposition of the gym membership increase due to the fact that “the individuals who would be based predominantly on the St. Patrick’s Campus would now have to pay for a service that they never would have paid beforehand.”
It now understood by the SU that the extra €10 will go “towards development and eventual expansion”, with both parties happy with this increase.
Lucy Mangan
Image credit: Laura Horan
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