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A warrior’s finish The Mustangs defeated the Waterloo Warriors 6–5 Friday night. >> pg. 7
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Thursday, November 27, 2012
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canada’s only Daily Student Newspaper • founded 1906
Volume 106, Issue 47
Fate of new rugby fields now in USC’s turf
Ritchie Sham Gazette
Cam Smith News Editor The turf may not be plastic, but it looks fantastic—on paper anyways. A proposal brought before the University Students’ Council on Wednesday night asked for an endorsement from council to replace the grass on one rugby field and one multi-purpose field with artificial turf. The proposal also includes new lighting and fencing, and if supported by council, could be ready by next fall. University administration has pledged almost two-thirds of the $4.81 million cost, but the remainder could fall on the students. According to Therese Quigley,
director of sports and recreation services, the merits of artificial turf compensate the cost, despite a stigma against it. “It used to be that artificial surfaces were not really the preferred surface of most participants. In the last 10 years, for sure, that has changed significantly,” she explained. “The industry has moved to the point that artificial turf is actually the preferred surface to natural grass in all but professional leagues, where the fields are maintained at that very high professional level.” Quigley noted that because of the high use, it was impractical to continue use of the fields with real grass.
“With utilization so high, the maintenance becomes a serious challenge for people to maintain the sports field,” she said. “It’s true, it doesn’t have divots, it doesn’t have mud, it doesn’t have a lot of the things that natural grass fails on.” Another important benefit is the potential for reduction of injuries. “The old turf product, it was very abrasive. It was hard. We saw more injuries as a result of the original turf of 20 years ago,” Quigley explained. “But the industry has moved so far. [Now, artificial turf] is, in fact, seen as resulting in less injuries [than real grass].” While the merits of the turf are understood by council, more infor-
mation needs to be gathered before council will commit to endorsing an increase in student fees. “By no means are we trying to get in the way of the project, but I think we want to see all the Is dotted and Ts crossed before we sign off and endorse the project,” USC President Adam Fearnall explained. “I think we just need a little more information before we endorse the project.” To gather this, council will convene with university administration to better understand the scope and necessity of the proposed project. “We’re hoping to sit down with the university and hammer out some of the details, and make sure
we have the best contract for the students before we ask them to support a fee through referendum, or look at increasing a fee through the student services committee,” Fearnall explained. While the USC was approached with this project with the hopes their endorsement would prevent a referendum, Fearnall asserted there was no rush. “We’ve been told there’s timelines that might be affected by going to referendum. It takes longer, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing either,” he explained. “We have to get a good understanding of what the timelines are, why it’s necessary to go early, or not.”
USC announces exam time shuttle service Aaron Zaltzman News Editor
Exam time may be brutal, but the University Students’ Council is helping to ease the post-exam hassle of coming home by offering students a shuttle to London International Airport and the VIA rail station this December. The preliminarily titled Break Shuttle will run from December 8 to 16, and will pick up students at various locations both on and off campus. “I think there’s a convenience factor, and a little bit of a cost factor,” USC President Adam Fearnall said. “Everybody knows it’s pretty difficult to get out to the airport. There isn’t great bus ser-
vice to that end of the city.” The USC has been getting more and more into the student shuttling business in recent years. In addition to an exam time shuttle ferrying students studying late on campus across the city, the organization unveiled the Mustang Express last year, which operates in a similar fashion on weekends for students downtown. It was this service that led to the creation of the Break Shuttle, which is funded by excess fees from the Mustang Express. “[The surplus money] has to be used for something within the scope of a shuttle system,” Tony Ayala, vice-president finance for the USC, said. “That’s the scope that we’re going with, and that’s
It may not be the most innovative idea ever, but if it’s something that can make students’ lives a little bit easier, I think it’s great to give it a shot. —Adam Fearnall
University Students’ Council president
what we’ll tell the board of governors at the end of the year. They think it’s amazing, so we don’t foresee any problems.” “It was something that was received favourably by people,” Fearnall said. “It may not be the most innovative idea ever, but if it’s something that can make students’ lives a little bit easier, I think it’s great to give it a shot.” Exam time shuttles like this were a major platform point for Fearnall in the USC elections earlier this year. At the time, it was criticized as only affecting a small amount of students. “I think it may affect more students than we think,” Fearnall said. “I think you always want to try and impact as many people
as possible with whatever project you’re trying to do […], but I think that with some of the things, it’s nice to be able to do something special.” Zoe Campbell, a second-year social science student, said she supports the service, especially since she previously had to take a cab to the VIA station. “I think it’s a worthy proposal for students because while it may not benefit a majority, it certainly is appreciated by those that it does help,” Campbell said. “This is probably just about the best that can be done short of the executive personally escorting individuals [...] home.”