A scheduled “town hall” meeting involving UTSC’s squash community and UTSC’s chief strategic officer, Andrew Arifuzzaman, was kept behind closed doors, and instead a public address will be issued later this week.

“I’ll be speaking with Andrew later on and we’ll have to agree on something to put to press,” said Devin Remesra, a squash league member who has spearheaded the movement to keep squash at UTSC. “I think the outcome from this will be positive though.”

The squash community was devastated last month when the university announced that squash would not be in the plans for the 2015 Pan Am aquatics facility.

“The main thing is, I think they realize the hurt that they caused when we heard this,” Remesra said. “They made the decision, and then when there was a reaction I think they just said ‘Wow’—this affects a lot of people.”

Remesra did say that it’s unlikely squash would be possible in the new facility at this point.

“We won’t be included in the new building, we know that,” Remesra said.  “It’s way too far gone at this point.”

Remesra stressed the bewilderment of the squash community that UTSC would strive to include a new activity, in swimming, but ignore an active community like squash.

The squash league has been active since the late ‘70s, and many members have been involved for over two decades.

“I was hoping to play squash on my 80th birthday at the recreation centre at Scarborough Campus,” Hans Shulz wrote in an email to The Underground.  “That hope was destroyed today.”