Sports suffer as university slashes costs

Execs of student sports societies may well be losing sleep this summer as they try to work out how they will cope in the new academic year. As the university announces a five percent budget cut for all departments, Warwick Sport is hit harder as it will see its funding reduced by three times this figure. In real terms for students, this will mean a sixty percent hike in membership prices as of next year, bringing it up to around £50 not including gym membership.

Of course we are all sympathetic that in the current financial climate everybody is tightening their belts, and of course the university cannot be excluded from that. As well as that, surely almost all of us would rather see budgets cut in this way than see tuition fees go on the rise.

Nonetheless the university seems insensitive about the fact that students are also pinching pennies at present, and as part-time jobs become scarcer and living costs continue to be a burden many students will simply not be able to afford additional draws on their resources. Not only that, but by sneakily announcing it at the tail end of the year the university has ensured that all of next year’s freshers are blissfully oblivious to the rises (just as last year’s freshers were somehow not informed about the Union rebuild).

As the sports societies do their best to remain inclusive, the university is further reducing the options of those students who may be unable to afford to make the most of the options available. Smaller societies are likely to suffer as fewer students will want to make the financial commitment to something they have not tried before.

The Students’ Union has launched the Support Our Sports (SOS) campaign, lobbying the university to ensure that any funding cuts to the Department for PE and Sports are in line with cuts to other faculties and that “any further action is only undertaken after a full and thorough consultation with the student body.” The Boar throws its full support behind the campaign and urges all its readers to look for further information and participate in the online survey by looking on the Union website. We are lucky to have sports facilities at a reasonable price, and we’d like it to stay that way.