by Brandon Adams
News Editor

Thanks to a recent decision by the Alma Mater Society (AMS) UBC Whistler Lodge will be open over the 2010 Olympics, but at the expense of a quarter million dollars in revenue for the AMS.

On February 7, AMS council was asked by VP Finance and Business Operations Committee (BOC) chair Sophia Haque to voice their opinions regarding a proposal by the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC) for rental during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

According to Haque’s presentation, VANOC wanted to rent the Lodge from mid-January to mid- March of 2010—encompassing both the Paralympic and Olympic Winter Games. The Lodge, which VANOC hoped would house tradespeople and volunteers, would have been closed to student rentals throughout the entire period.

Haque said that VANOC’s proposal would have supplied the AMS with anywhere between $128,000 to $224,000—significantly more than the estimated $49,500 the Lodge would make over that time period otherwise.

The BOC recommendation to turn down the proposal was passed on to the AMS council which, after some discussion, voted with a strong majority to proposal.

“The [business operations] committee had, amongst ourselves, decided it would be in the AMS’ best interests to reserve those…beds for students,” said Haque.

Haque explained that the issue was not with the amount of money that VANOC was offering, but the desire to keep that space open for students during the games.

Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) President and AMS Council Member Ryan Clare said he was pleased with the decision and that it was well discussed.

“It’s probably the best thing that’s been discussed at AMS council during the time that I’ve been sitting on it—it’s definitely the most interesting because it’s really hard to weigh those costs,” said Clare.

“If you look at the entire budget of the AMS, the amount of money you would get in it would be almost peanuts, compared to the amount of our total budget.”

“The decision is basically a judgment call between taking the money and using that money to benefit students,” said Graduate Student Society (GSS) representative Darren Peets, “or having the lodge available for students during the Olympics, which is a bit of an intangible.”

Whistler, he said, will be completely unaffordable for students.