Inspectors are using scanners at the ACLO sports centres to check if people coming to exercise have a valid ACLO pass. ‘We want to put out a clear signal at the start of the year’, says Lars Zoete, internal coordinator of the ACLO board. ‘And it’s comforting for the people who did buy a pass.’
ACLO board president Victor Koster does not have an exact number of how many people are dodging the fees, but he suspects it is around ten per cent. The extra checks have already proven effective: the inspectors are recognisable from a distance and fee dodgers either leave or end up buying a pass after all.
That means that few people are actually getting caught, but the inspection team is encounterring students who do not know they need to buy a new ACLO pass every year. ‘But they usually have their bank card on them and immediately buy a new one at the desk’, says Zoete. ‘Sometimes there are international students who don’t really know how things work, so we explain it to them.’
Sense
Nobody is looking askance at the checks, says Koster. ‘Most students think it makes sense.’
Medical student Manon Teunissen is one of them. ‘I worked out a lot last year and I wasn’t checked once. I could’ve just not bought a pass.’ Melissa Koopman, a psychology student, was checked once last year and is happy with the stricter inspections. ‘There are always people who don’t have a pass. This will encourage them to get one after all.’
Economics student Roy Germain thinks the checks are a bit much. ‘I don’t really see the point. If someone wants to dodge the fee, they’ll figure out a way to do it.’ In order to discourage fee dodgers, the inspectors will be there all year. ‘We’ll continue even if everyone we check has a pass. We want to keep putting out that signal’, says president Koster.