Student hub

UCD CENTRE:An impressive new suite of facilities at the recently opened UCD student centre has everything from a pool to a 3D cinema – and even a TV studio, writes EOIN BUTLER

FROM ACTORS to comedians, CEOs to Supreme Court justices, UCD has produced many of the country’s most polished public speakers. The university has also produced four of our last eight taoisigh. Whether that is something worth boasting about, however, might be a matter for debate.

From this month onwards, Irish politicians of the future will be able to do just that at the university’s new Garret Fitzgerald Debating Chamber. Resembling a mini-parliament hall, the chamber can accommodate up to 350 people. It is among a suite of impressive new facilities at the recently opened UCD Sport and Fitness student centre.

Situated at the Clonskeagh gate, the centre is virtually unique among Irish universities in that it provides an on-campus hub for both sporting and non-sporting recreation. As well as a gym, sauna, steam room, tepidarium, kiddie’s pool and the state’s third Olympic-size swimming pool (after Abbotstown and UL), the centre also boasts a 3D cinema, floating dance studio and a €3m state of the art theatre.

It was designed by architects Fitzgerald Kavanagh and Partners. “This is miles ahead of anything else in Ireland,” boasts project co-ordinator Dominic O’Keefe. “We had the foresight to merge both [the fitness and recreation] sides. So we can achieve efficiencies in management by having the same staff running all the services.”

Student union president Rachel Breslin is equally enthusiastic about the new development. “It will make a huge difference to how students interact with the college. The likes of debating, drama and dance classes are all things you do with other people. That facilitates students interacting and making new friends.” Breslin also sees the wisdom in combining both sporting and non-sporting facilities.

“There will be a huge increase in participation rates for clubs and societies. And because the centre is such a magnet for students, it will provide a captive audience for events like drama and film.” The new theatre is perhaps the most impressive of all the centre’s facilities. “In the old Newman Theatre,” O’Keefe recalls, “there was no backstage: no shower, no toilets, no dressing room. It was just a room where you hung a bunch of lights up on the roof, climbed up on step ladders and hoped to God no one fell off.” The new facility has a prop room, sets, a moveable lighting rig, surround sound, rear projection and a relay system that provides live video feed of what’s happening to the backstage area. There is seating for 111 people. Although the new semester has only just begun, a student workshop is already underway as I am shown through.

Upstairs, staff at the University Observer are working away busily. Around the corner, a rts co-ordinator James Masterson leads me into a windowless, sound-proof empty room. It looks like one of those places that, in the movies, casino heavies would bring some shark they’d just caught cheating at blackjack. But soon it’s going to be a functioning TV studio. Down the corridor, Belfield FM’s new studio has an expansive roadcaster-eque view out on to the concourse below. Not bad for a university that doesn’t even have a school of journalism.

So how is all of this being paid for? In the 1990s, UCD students voted to introduce an annual student levy of IR£50 (€63.50). Following a second referendum in 2007, that amount has gradually risen from €75 to €100 and finally €150p.a. This is how the €49.2m required to fund the development was raised. Funding the project was a selfless gesture on the part of students who knew they would be long gone by the time the project came to fruition.

The Belfield campus has a population roughly equal to that of Athlone. Gym membership is free for current students. But there is a charge of €4 if they wish to use the pool. UCD alumni who paid the levy can purchase annual membership for €425 a year. Members of the public must shell out €800 for an annual membership. The gym needs 1,200 members paying the top rate in order to become financially viable.

With that goal in mind, perhaps, management controversially informed students that their access to the gym would be restricted between 6.15pm and 8.15pm on weekday evenings during term times.

That announcement provoked an angry reaction from students. But it hasn’t kept them away. On a visit to the reception area early this week, approximately 150 students are queuing to register. At the time of my visit, 4,200 students had already signed up. For Breslin, this will only serve to make the college a more attractive choice for prospective future students. “When Leaving Cert students are looking around at the institutions they are looking to attend, I’m sure the student centre will influence their choice. The facilities here are so appealing. Why would you want to go anywhere else?”