With newly renovated athletic facilities at both the Casa Loma and St. James campuses, revenue from the Athletic Building Fund levy will be redirected to fund operations at the athletics and student life departments.

The Student Association’s (SA) board of directors approved the request from George Brown College (GBC) to redirect the funds at the Dec. 12, 2016 board meeting.

The SA funds The Dialog.

According to numbers presented by the college, the Athletics Building Fund, which students started paying in 2007, had funded the renovations of the St. James and Casa Loma athletic facilities that cost approximately $10 million.

With the gyms at George Brown’s two major campuses renovated, Gerard Hayes, the director of student experience at GBC, said the college would rather use the money to fund student life operations such as bringing the Student Leadership Academy on campus.

Hayes said that some user-fees such as the ones currently being charged for yoga classes could also be eliminated with the redirected funding.

Hayes also said that the college would like to build another athletics facility at any new building at Waterfront campus, which city council approved the sale of a block of land to GBC on Dec. 13, 2016.

Under the new structure the Athletics Building Fund would receive $29.84 per student and the Athletic and Student Life Operations Fee would increase to $47.60.