Accommodations for new free weights that will be added to the gym in Goldstein Student Center next semester was the main topic of a focus group of South Campus residents Sunday.

South Campus residents met with Student Association, Student Centers and Programming Services, and Recreation Services on Sunday and will meet again Wednesday to discuss what they think is the best way to make space for the new weights and relocate cardio machines outside the gym without eliminating student privacy.

The treadmills, ellipticals and bikes will be placed in the area behind the stairwell where pool tables are currently located. Sunday’s meeting discussed whether to face them with users’ backs or faces to the windows. Most attendees at the focus group agreed the equipment should be placed with users’ backs to the windows.

Bridget Yule, director of Student Centers and Programming Services, said free weights can only be added to the current gym space if cardio machines are moved outside of the gym and into the space the pool tables currently occupy. Results from a February survey of 328 South Campus residents showed the majority of people do not use the pool tables, which would be relocated to another area in Goldstein Student Center.

The main challenge of making room for the free weights by reorganizing the gym is to keep students happy without alienating another group of students, Yule said.

“We are trying to understand how students feel,” Yule said. “We want to know what it would take for students to feel more comfortable so that they don’t feel like they are being stared at.”

The initial design for Goldstein included a third phase in design that included an indoor track and pool in addition to the gym. But Goldstein has not seen any remodeling since it opened in 1990 because there wasn’t any funding for the expansion, Yule said.

The cost of adding the free weights next semester will be $4,000 to $7,000, said Joseph Lore, director of Recreation Services.

The push for free weights in the fitness center started last semester, when Eugene Law, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry representative for SA, contacted the SU administration after the ESF students he mentors complained to him about the gym. All first-year ESF students are required to live in SkyHalls on South Campus.

“We really want to make it a useable facility and give people that option,” Law said.

Despite having a gym close to his residence, Michael Martin, a freshman at ESF, said the inadequate facilities have caused him to workout less than he otherwise would have. During Sunday’s focus group, Martin said he chooses not to work out because there is not a suitable facility close to his SkyHall residence.

“I am not going to go all the way back to Main Campus to work out,” Martin said. “It is a pain.”

The staff at Student Centers and Programming Services and Recreation Services met with Law to discuss how they would evaluate and address the comments and complaints made by South Campus residents.

Survey results showed 82 percent of respondents said they would use the free weights, and the majority said they would use the gym more often if free weights were available.

Despite the complaints about the South Campus gym, SU is ahead of the curve in availability of gym facilities, said Lore, director of Recreation Services. Based on Recreation Services’ research, no other university in the nation has more than four fitness centers, and SU has six, Lore said.

“When I first came here 25 years ago there was no fitness center for non-student-athletes,” Lore said. “This generation is a lot more health-conscious, and students are saying part of the college experience is to live a healthy lifestyle.”

 

Published on March 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm