Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning I wake up at 6 a.m. and haul my tired ass out of bed to go swimming at the University of Calgary pool.
When I signed in at the desk last Wednesday morning I asked for a towel and was given one without hesitation.
As I started to walk away the recreation dude called me back asking if I was a Dino athlete. I responded with a groggy no and he proceeded to tell me that towels cost one dollar.
I was appalled, dismayed, shocked and flabbergasted as it never occurred to me that I would be charged for a towel.
Luckily, I had taken out money the day before and was able cover the towel plus the five dollar deposit they require for the rental.
As I walked into the locker room, I complained to my friend about the atrocity that had just occurred.
Until today, I have always remembered to take my towel to the pool.
Alas, on this morning in my haggard state I forgot it on my bathroom shelf. Because I had never forgotten my towel before I did not know the rules and regulations behind rental.
Now I am not stating that I am a cheap bastard, I spend enough money on food and drinks at school and other useless crap to prove I spend without constraint.
I am simply bringing up another detail about the mistreatment of students at the U of C.
Along with no longer providing course outlines to students in certain faculties, campus recreation chooses not to provide the student body with a complimentary towel service.
With the money each student pays for recreation and athletic fees in their tuition, you would hope a complimentary towel service would be in order for the few people who use the pool.
Every morning I am there, I see about 12 other people using the swimming lanes. That is not a tremendous amount of people to provide towels for as the pool has three sessions for public lap swimming a day, and say there is 20 people at each one, that is only 60 towels per day.
Renting these towels free of charge to students would not send the university into a financial crisis.
I have shopped for towels and I know that you can find plain white ones for roughly $10. In fact each undergrad student pays roughly $150 a year for Dinos athletics and the use of the recreational facilities on campus.
That is a lot of money for a student to pay on top of books, tuition, parking and other yearly fees.
With roughly 20,000 students in undergraduate programs that is $3 million pouring into athletics and recreation each year.
Yes, a simple solution would be to bring a towel from home, but sometimes you just forget with all that goes on in school.
The rare time a student forgets a towel they should be able to take comfort in the fact that they could get a free towel from the front desk.
Along with the inconvenience, a lot of students have moved into the future and no longer carry cash, thus would not be able to rent a towel without putting a transaction fee onto their debit card. One dollar is not worth using debit.
If Dinos athletes get free towels covered by our fees it is time we were also extended the same service.
Now is the time for the U of C to step up its contribution to ease student life by providing the small things so students can think about the larger, more important things.