UREC Activity Center should open earlier

SMRITHI UPADHYAYULA Mercury Staff

The Activity Center should open at 6 a.m. in order to be more inclusive of students with early morning classes and help ease gym traffic.

The gym currently opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays. If students arrive as soon as it opens, they can get through an hour-long workout by 8 a.m. Allowing a few minutes to check in, find the right equipment, and rerack weights, they will likely be out the door by 8:10 a.m.. For students with 8:30 a.m. classes, 20 minutes is not nearly enough time to shower, gather their supplies, have breakfast of some kind and get to class on time. Moreover, with only three squat racks and a handful of benches, people are often subjected to long wait times for the Activity Center’s most popular equipment. Spreading out gym traffic over more hours could also help alleviate this problem.

Christopher McAlpine, University Recreation’s associate director of facility operations, said that a primary reason for opening the Activity Center at 7 a.m was the difficulty of recruiting student workers to staff the gym earlier in the morning. Student workers must arrive fifteen minutes before the gym opens, and a lack of bus routes that early in the morning would make this difficult.

However, DART has recently expanded

SEE GYM, PAGE 10