More Rec Basketball at the University of Toronto's Athletic Centre!

The Athletic Centre at the University of Toronto is a second home to many of us. It is one of the few places at the University where we feel a sense of community and school spirit, but this is only because we can relax, play basketball, and see the same people on an almost daily basis.

Recently, the schedule has included time slots of basketball only an hour or two in length, and on days when we historically had basketball all day long (Fridays) there is consistently a break at 5:00 and now at other times as well. We are told by some senior staff that concerns about fighting factor into scheduling, however people rarely ever fight, and if they do it is purely competitive verbal bantering. These arguments stem from a lack of court time when there may be four or five teams waiting to play at each net. If there were more courts available and longer sessions, people wouldn't be as concerned about winning and the atmosphere would be more relaxed.

Some Athletic Centre staff have given anecdotal evidence that multi-hour tennis bookings are made by people using fake names. Tennis occupies two full basketball courts or four half courts with only four to eight people. You will often see ten times as many people at one basketball court than on two tennis courts. If students are the focus of the University as they should be, this would appear to be an ineffective use of space. If these courts could be made available more often and at consistent times, we'd take advantage of the opportunity to play full court basketball - the way the game was meant to be played.

Additionally, a system should be devised where a booking that is unused becomes available for basketball. Too often are courts unused for hours on end while AC staff tell us the decision is out of their hands. On top of this, the scheduling of PHYS-ED classes should be integrated into recreation scheduling such that classes are back-to-back if possible. This would reduce the amount of one-hour interruptions to extended sessions of rec basketball.

Basketball is said to be the fastest growing sport in Canada. However, U of T has been moving in the opposite direction as there seems to be less and less basketball scheduled every week. In past years, we could go to the AC at almost any time during the day and expect to play, and now we expect a long wait or no basketball at all.

This petition will quantify the volume of students who feel strongly that they're being cheated out of a better University experience. To the administration responsible for AC scheduling, please respond with change.

(please submit your utoronto email for added credibility)