Non-Varsity Use of the McKee Weightroom in Volk Gymnasium
As it stands currently, the McKee Weight room is allowed only to Varsity athletes, but I feel that due to the amount of fees that each individual student is paying the McKee weight room should be open to reservation by student organizations. As it stands right now the Rec Center is always packed, and a group of students who wish to lift together are completely out of luck when it comes to using the free weights/bars if they want to and being able to get out of the gym in under 2 hours.
My proposal is as follows:
Allow students to register groups/organizations with their members through a portal and once the roster has been verified, allow these groups to register a time they'd like to use the weight room. This could be sorted using the pre-existing blastercard system. Students lifting in groups wouldn't be facing the same inherent danger due to looking out for one another and spotting. Through the registration of student groups, missing items or damages could be pinpointed and punishment dealt out for not looking after gym equipment.
Christian
shared this idea
Thank you for voicing your opinion on this matter. We agree that the SRC has had a large increase in usage to correspond with an increased enrollment at Mines. This in turn has overcrowded the Rec. gym at peak hours. Allowing club sports, ROTC, and other student groups to use the McKee weight room would decrease the strain on the SRC.
Last semester your Junior class representatives began working on a solution to this issue and come up with a similar idea to the one posted. There are a handful of problems that must be addressed for this to happen. Scheduling around Varsity sports, supervision of users, implementation of a portal, and administrative approval are few.
Unfortunately, these problems take time to overcome. In the short-term we will contact the SRC staff to see about maximizing the usable space in the gym and increasing students access to workout equipment. Additionally, we will continue to reach out to the administration and athletics departments in pursuit of our goal to see student groups in Volk. Please continue to suggest solutions and voice your opinions.
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Mason Elliott
commented
I agree, this is a great idea and I would personally benefit from this. I’d really love to see this “work out”.