Is Waterloo’s Athletics & Recreation Fee Worth It?

Three people climb a colorful indoor rock climbing wall in a bright, modern gym with large windows at Waterloo, enjoying facilities supported by the Athletics & Recreation Fee.

Every undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo pays an Athletics & Recreation fee. A lot of students don’t know exactly what it covers, where it goes, or whether they’re getting fair value for their money. The Athletics & Recreation report’s goal is to close the gap between what’s charged and what students understand about it.

At WUSA’s 2023 Annual Members’ Meeting, students voted for a public review of the Athletics & Recreation fee. This is a really strong example of how WUSA can work for you: students identified a question they wanted answered, voted to make it happen, and WUSA followed through.

The review of the fee looked at what students pay, what they get, how often services are used, what students think of the experience, and whether the current funding split across varsity, recreation, and facilities makes sense given usage.

Three Things to Know

1. The fee offers strong overall value for money. At $141.39 per term for full-time students in 2025-26, the fee works out to about $35.35 per month. This is a lot cheaper than other off-campus fitness and recreation options.

2. Students use recreation services a lot, and generally like them. Facility visits hit 962,000 in 2023-24. Satisfaction scores across programs generally landed between 3.9 and 4.3 out of 5.

3. Varsity is where the biggest questions remain. About half the fee funds varsity operations, but roughly 70% of students say they have never attended a varsity event.

What is the Athletics & Recreation fee?

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student at Waterloo, you’re paying $141.39 per term toward Athletics & Recreation in 2025-26. Part-time students pay $42.41 per term. This fee is a compulsory part of the broader Student Services and Athletics Complex fee that appears on every student’s account.

The fee funds four main things: facilities, recreation programming, varsity sports, and administration. Athletics & Recreation receives about 55% of its total annual revenue from student fees, with the remainder coming from facility rentals, fundraising, sponsorships, and other sources.

At a glance:

  • 2024-25 full-time fee: $130.23 per term
  • 2025-26 full-time fee: $141.39 per term
    • 2025-26 monthly equivalent: $35.35
  • 2025-26 part-time fee: $42.41 per term

Where your fee goes:

  • Varsity: 47%
  • Administrative costs: 16%
  • Facilities: 15%
  • Recreation services: 9%
  • Marketing & communications: 7%
  • Warrior Recreation: 6%

Aerial view of a modern school building with a circular driveway and sports fields in the background, highlighting Waterloo Athletics facilities that truly make the Recreation Fee worth it.

What does the fee include?

For most students, the fee means access to PAC and CIF (the two main fitness and recreation facilities on campus). But the full list of what you can access with your fee is broader.

This is what’s included:

  • Access to PAC and CIF fitness centres
  • Open recreation and drop-in
  • Field house access
  • Pool access
  • Courts, studios, and gyms
  • Lendable equipment
  • Select facility bookings

Some programs and amentities cost extra, including:

  • Climbing wall membership
  • Fitness classes
  • Intramurals registration
  • Esports lounge access
  • Golf simulator time
  • Some training classes

When doing our review of the Athletics & Recreation fee, the extra fees came up as worth reviewing, particularly whether it’s reasonable to charge students for specific programs when they’re already paying a compulsory fee.

Two people in athletic clothing walk down stairs in a modern gym, talking and smiling—showcasing how Waterloo Athletics makes the Recreation Fee worth it.

How does Waterloo’s fee compare to other schools?

When you look at what other Ontario universities charge, Waterloo sits slightly below both the median and the average. For 2024-25, Waterloo’s fee of $130.23 per term compared to a peer average of $145.36 and a median of $142.64 across the universities reviewed.

When compared to other fitness and recreation options off-campus, like private gyms or workout studios, WUSA found that students paying Waterloo’s fee get access to facilities and programming that could otherwise cost $200 to $400 per month. With how expensive post-secondary can be, accessing private fitness and recreation options can add up and the Athletics & Recreation fee provides good value for money.

Are students actually using the facilities?

Yes, and use has grown dramatically. Facility check-ins have more than doubled in three years:

  • 2021-22: 447,000 check-ins
  • 2022-23: 918,000 check-ins
  • 2023-24: 962,000 check-ins

That growth happened through a period when students were returning to campus post-pandemic and coming back to in-person activities. The data suggests that when students have access to good fitness and recreation infrastructure, they use it.

Registered recreation programming in 2023-24 also showed strong participation:

  • Intramurals: 16,628 registrations
  • Sports clubs: 8,869 participants
  • Instructional programs: 3,999
  • Esports leagues: 3,467

That said, complete unique-user tracking isn’t yet in place. PAC has better entry data than CIF due to building design, which means total visits can be counted more reliably than individual student usage patterns. WUSA is recommending that Athletics & Recreation improve this so future reviews can be more precise.

Two basketball teams face off at center court in a gym with spectators in black and yellow seats, showcasing the energy of Waterloo Athletics—making every Recreation Fee worth it.

What do students say about the experience?

Overall satisfaction is positive. Satisfaction scores across programs generally landed between 3.9 and 4.34 out of 5. Students reported broad appreciation for having recreational infrastructure on campus and strong satisfaction with specific programs like intramurals.

What students like:

  • Broad range of facilities
  • Access to recreation on campus
  • Strong satisfaction with intramurals
  • High perceived value overall

What students want improved:

  • Crowded PAC spaces, particularly during peak hours
  • Longer and more flexible operating hours
  • Cleaner washrooms and showers
  • Faster equipment repairs
  • Better access and equity for satellite campus students
  • More machines and amenities

The crowding and hours issues came up consistently. WUSA’s Yearly Planning Report found that 66% of students cite not having enough time as their biggest barrier to engagement; facilities that are hard to access during available windows become a real deterrent to students using these spaces.

The biggest open question: varsity funding

About 47% of the Athletics & Recreation fee (nearly half) goes to varsity operations. Varsity does deliver a strong experience for the students who participate in it. More than 800 varsity athletes are involved, and most reported positive outcomes in terms of academic support, athletic development, and overall experience. Waterloo’s varsity programs are competitive and well-regarded.

However, when WUSA surveyed the broader undergraduate population:

  • Roughly 70% of students said they had never attended a varsity event
  • The most common reasons were lack of time, not knowing when games were scheduled, and not having friends to go with
  • Intramurals, which receives about 6% of the fee, had 16,628 registrations in 2023-24
  • Varsity events drew about 10,008 student entries across all ticketed home games that same year

This isn’t to say that varsity should be defunded or that it lacks value. However, a funding split of this scale should be justified by evidence of broad student benefit and that right now, that evidence isn’t there. Until varsity engagement with the wider student body improves meaningfully, WUSA recommends against increasing varsity-related funding further.

Should the fee stay compulsory?

WUSA found that yes, it should, but with conditions.

The case for a compulsory fee rests on the idea of collective investment. Not everyone will use every facility or attend every program, but the existence of accessible recreation infrastructure benefits the campus community as a whole. Students who use the gym regularly, students who play intramurals once a term, and students who never set foot in PAC all benefit from being part of a campus that takes student wellness seriously.

WUSA also believes that compulsory fees carry an obligation for public review, transparent reporting, and a genuine commitment to ensuring the money is allocated in ways that serve the broadest possible group of students. The fact that students voted at an Annual Members’ Meeting to trigger this review is itself evidence that those obligations weren’t being fully met and that students noticed.

Student perceived value of the fee:

  • 48% said yes, the fee provides value
  • 34% were unsure
  • 18% said no

The report found that students who knew less about what the fee covers were significantly less likely to see value in it.

What WUSA recommends next

  1. Improve usage tracking — Build out complete unique-user data so decisions are based on actual student behaviour, not just total visit counts
  2. Review varsity athletics — Develop a strategic plan that ties varsity investment to measurable engagement with the broader student population
  3. Hold off on varsity funding increases — Don’t increase varsity-related funding until engagement with the wider student body improves
  4. Review satellite campus access — Ensure students at Cambridge, Kitchener, and Stratford get equitable value from the fee they pay
  5. Publish an annual public report — Athletics & Recreation should release a plain-language operations report each year so students know where their money goes
  6. Reassess extra fees — Review which programs charge additional fees on top of the compulsory fee and whether those charges are fair
  7. Explore extended hours — Investigate longer operating hours including exam-period expansion and 24/7 access feasibility
  8. Add live capacity monitoring — Expand real-time occupancy information so students can plan around peak crowding
  9. Push for more transparent SSAC reporting — Advocate for clearer public reporting on the full Student Services and Athletics Complex fee structure

The bottom line

Waterloo’s Athletics & Recreation fee delivers strong overall value particularly when compared to off-campus alternatives and given the breadth of services available on campus. The broader campus community also benefits from a compulsory Athletics & Recreation fee.

However, the value from the fee is uneven across the system. Crowding at peak hours makes access difficult for students who are already crunched for time. Students at the Kitchener, Cambridge, and Stratford satellite campuses have a gap in access. Nearly half of the fee going to a varsity program that the majority of students have never engaged with needs more attention.

Want to dig in further?

Read the full report at Athletics & Recreation Value for Money Report (full PDF).

Sources and further reading

Published: Thursday, May 14, 2026