Cameron Smith/The Veritas News
Due to an increased amount of incident reports, Sunday open gym hours have changed.
Sunday hours and rules have changed at the Lahue PE Center to ensure that only ENC students are using the facility.
Open gym now has a specific coed use time, as well as separate open gym times for females and males.
Coed open gym is from 2-4 p.m., female-only open gym is from 7-8:30 p.m., and 8:30-10 p.m. for male students. Students will not be permitted to use the gym if they do not have a valid student ID, which Security will check for.
Athletic Director Dr. Nancy Detwiler has seen an increase in the number of incident reports. Rather than closing the gym on Sundays or limiting use further, Detwiler decided to change to “manageable hours for security to monitor comings and goings.”
Detwiler said that most reported incidents are students letting non-ENC students into the gym. She said the gym is for students, faculty, and staff only, and these new hours are an attempt to get people to “[assume] social responsibility and [follow] the rules.”
Most of the incidents are on Sunday nights as the gym is used for school events most weekdays, Detwiler said.
The staff wanted to avoid closing the gym entirely on Sundays, which was once the case.
“It used to be like that for several years,” Detwiler said.
Detwiler said the idea of having separate hours based on gender has been expressed in the past. It is an opportunity for students to feel more comfortable going to the gym, Detwiler said.
While the new Sunday hours are currently for open gym time only, Detwiler said there has been interest in extending these hours to other facilities, such as the weight room.
Junior Ashley Cook, who regularly uses the treadmills, does not like the idea of gender-specific hours throughout the week.
“I like to work out later at night and having it only be males hinders me from being able to do that,” Cook said. “However, if it’s only on Sunday, then I guess I can handle it for one day out of a week.”
Detwiler said ENC is not the only college struggling with the idea of allowing guests into the gym. She has visited other campuses facing the dilemma of what to do about the public wanting to gain access to college facilities. She said the issue is a “running battle.”