Students protest $150 annual fee for gym

The University of New Brunswick student union is fighting the administration on behalf of students who don’t want to pay big fees for an expensive new facility that they might not use. This week, the board of governors approved a $150-per-year fee that will be imposed on all students to help pay for the Richard J. Currie Centre, a fancy new fitness facility that will open by September. If the fee is renewed each year, that would cost students $600 over four years. Joey O’Kane, VP External for the Student Union told CBC News that the money should be collected from user fees instead. The university’s president Eddy Campbell disagreed and added that the size of the fees was a past student union administration’s choice. He says that they demanded a $40-million facility when the administration had proposed a more modest $25-million building. The final tally is expected to be $62-million.