After a long, cold, and stormy winter, ENC students are itching to take advantage of the longer, warmer, and sunnier days of spring.
Students can play Frisbee and soccer on the lawn during the day, but the options are limited at night. We can shoot hoops in the gym, or utilize the workout rooms, but where else can we go to exercise? Where can we pop in an instructive DVD of Yoga, Pilates, P90X, or Insanity? Where can we blare music and do Zumba or Thai Chi?
There is a growing number of clubs that emphasize these enjoyments, and fliers encouraging “healthy choices during lent” are circulating around campus. But, when an energetic exercise enthusiast decides to do these activities outside of the designated once-a-week times, their only options are to use their dorm floor’s lounge or the multipurpose room in the gym.
The lounge can pose a problem because one never knows when it will be available or if there will be people who stop by and decide not to leave, putting the exercising individuals in an awkward position.
The multipurpose room is also not the ideal environment to participate in these activities. Although Athletic Director Dr. Nancy Detwiler is great about scheduling, first priority for this room always goes to the sports teams. Around these abundant reservations, there are not many available times for other students to use the multipurpose room.
The multipurpose room is ideal for reservations for events such as the occasional self-defense class, but the typical student does not feel welcome to use a floor space for their own agenda when they directly share it with people in the adjacent batting cages. It is time for a space that can actually be used as a “multipurpose” room.
If the sports teams could have their own place, and the general student population could have a separate room, everyone would have more options and freedom. Exercise is something that we—as a campus—should continue to promote and make possible for every student. A new multipurpose room would do just the trick.