Christina VarvisThe Athletics and Recreation Fee is designed to support healthy and active lifestyle on the University of Alberta campus through various exercise facilities and programs, recreational sports opportunities, and varsity athletics. With your full or part-time admission at the U of A, you automatically gain access to a handful of the facilities and services available on campus. Well, simply put, the U of A is a really good school for those who like to exercise and play sports. It offers a whole bunch of different intramural options for different skill levels, a really nice gym with a lot of good equipment, and a wide array of facilities that can be used at almost any time for free.
Just last year, the U of A opened the doors to its Physical Activity and Wellness (PAW) Centre, which boasts an upgraded fitness centre with brand new equipment and machines, exercise and nutrition programs and consultation, as well as a massive climbing wall. The new fitness centre is a big upgrade on the old one, both in terms of open space and the addition of high quality equipment. At the old gym, it was damn near impossible to find an open machine in the gym. The new gym has added 76 cardiovascular machines, two multipurpose synergy stations, and 14 squat racks, and a bunch of new free weights, making it actually possible to exercise without standing around for an extended period of time. During the year, the fitness centre is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m and on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Unfortunately, they haven’t renovated the locker rooms yet, but they’re still functional. You can buy a locker for one semester or a full year that allows you to lock your stuff up over night. Large lockers cost $124 per term and small ones cost $80.
The university provides a towel service for $38 per term where you can grab a towel and give it back to them when you’re done, so you don’t have to carry a wet towel around all day. Towel service is included if you buy a locker, but if you don’t want to spend the money, you can just bring a lock and put your stuff away during the day. But watch out, once the facility closes, they’ll chop all of the non-registered locks off of the lockers and throw the stuff in the lost and found.
The U of A also offers a wide array of facilities and services other than just the fitness centre that you can use. The Van Vliet Complex, named after the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation’s founding dean, includes: a hockey arena, a gymnasium with three basketball, four volleyball, and 12 badminton courts, an aquatic centre with two indoor pools, a dance studio which can also be used for dodgeball, volleyball, and badminton, three multi-purpose gymnasiums, a weight training room, and three racquetball courts. There’s also the Universiade Pavilion, also known as the Butterdome, which houses: a six-lane, 200 meter indoor track, four basketball, volleyball, and badminton courts, a full sized indoor soccer field, and a sandpit for long jump and pole vault. It’s the best place to come to run distance if you don’t like running on a treadmill. There’s almost always pickup basketball games being played at one of the four hoops, because your OneCard allows you to rent a basketball from the equipment room for free. All these places have different hours of operation due to them being booked by varsity teams, classes, or clubs so it’s smart to check availability on the Phys Ed and Recreation website before using any facilities.
Along with facilities, you can find a wide array of campus recreation intramural sports options — ice and ball hockey, indoor and outdoor soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc —that range from competitive to friendly beginner caliber. If you played Junior A hockey, there’s a competitive division with a high paced quality of play, but if you’ve never strapped on a pair of skates, there’s a beginner division too. Campus recreation sports aren’t covered in your fees, so each sport option has a different price attached to it. Usually, they’ll charge you a lump sum to register a team, so the more players you can have on your team, the cheaper it is for each person. If you don’t know anybody who wants to make a team, you can register as a free agent and somebody looking for teammates to fill their roster will pick you up. If you have a friend who doesn’t go to the U of A, you can still have them on your team. They just need to pay an additional charge, or you can also just find somebody who looks like them with a OneCard.
Any other information can be found on the U of A Rec Services’ website.
