Broken workout machines, TVs turned off or worse, turned to GUTV, grungy locker-rooms: Yates Field House hardly provides a luxurious gym experience. But it’s convenient and, thanks to the mandatory Yates fee included in everyone’s tuition, it doesn’t cost Georgetown students anything extra. Until now—Georgetown unveiled a new policy this semester of charging Yates members five dollars for fitness classes that were previously offered for free. Cutbacks can’t be avoided during tough financial times, but surely the University can weather the storm without destroying arguably the best service offered by Yates.
Every Georgetown student is charged $155.50 for access to Yates each semester, with no exceptions, regardless of how often they go or whether they’ve even used it during their time here. These fees have gone up over the past few years so that this money continues to cover the expenses of running the field house. Traditionally, Yates has offered classes in ballet, tennis, weightlifting, and numerous other areas to students at no extra fee.
Extra funds accrued from charging for classes are insignificant compared to the mandatory fees—it would take over 18,000 classes of 10 students paying five dollars each to raise a comparable sum. While the money that Yates will make charging for classes won’t be a cash cow for the University, the small fees do make a difference in the lives of students.
Charging for classes hasn’t, as of yet, brought significant improvement in the quality of class structure itself, meaning that the money collected from participants is being spent elsewhere. Yates employees have indicated that better-trained instructors are a possibility for the future, a good move if they keep the unnecessary fees.
Georgetown prides itself on the value of cura personalis, or educating and developing the whole person, which includes attention to physical activity. Making Yates more expensive and more difficult for students to use goes against the basic ideals upon which the University was grounded. Charging for classes is impracticable and unjustified, and Yates should cease the practice.
