By Jenna Notarfrancesco, Staff Writer

Renovations to The University’s Recreation Center are spurring animosity among students due to reduced access to the gym.

Although a portion of the facility has been available to students since February, space is limited, as all programs must operate on a single basketball court.  Basketball players are now sharing space with those doing aerobics; weight lifters are cramped in with cardio machine users.

The gym, once home to club teams, is now occupied by machines and mats that were originally located upstairs.

“We used to hold practices in the gym, like last year before they started renovation,” said sophomore Tori Jackson, co-captain of Hofstra University’s women’s ultimate Frisbee team.  “We practiced Tuesdays and Thursdays and during the weekend if we could get a spot, which we usually could.  Now we’re forced to only use it for workouts.”

In preparation for tournaments, the ultimate Frisbee team relies heavily upon team practices, focusing on drills, 3-on-3 games and instructional time with the coach.  During the winter months gym time is crucial as players do not want to become sick by playing in the snow and cold temperatures.  But varsity teams, including cheerleading and basketball, are now getting precedence over club teams, like Ultimate Frisbee.

“We pretty much have nothing to use,” said Jackson.  “I mean we have tried to see if we could get time in there and they pretty much told us we have very slim possibility.”
“We are doing our best to accommodate the clubs on the fields according to their availability, but this facility is currently offline for any of the club sports or spirit groups,” said Pat Montagano, the senior assistant dean of students at Hofstra and director of Recreation and Intramural Sports.

Other club sports, including the crew team, were also inconvenienced before the recreation center’s reopening in February.  “When it was closed we had to go to the swim center in the mornings so we did swimming workouts.  I was not very good at it but swimming is also a good workout,” said 20-year-old sophomore Jesse Fox, a member of the Hofstra crew team.  “So we did that and in the afternoons some of us would go lift, but the space was so small in the gym. It was hard to bear and we didn’t have access to the rowing machines either.”

Fox emphasized that crew is a time consuming sport with practices held five or six days a week.  Crew requires intensive training as individuals must maintain peek physical fitness in order to complete the physically demanding races.  Rowing at the gym is key to staying in shape, Fox said.  The ergs, or rowing machines, improve a rower’s endurance, strength, and sprinting ability and are therefore a vital part of workouts, making gym time crucial to the team’s progress.

“The best thing is always just to erg, because I mean the more meters you get in on an erg the better rower you will be, the faster you will be in the water.  Any workout you miss you can never make up,” said Fox.

Many contact club sports are anxious for the new center to open and once again accommodate their teams with gym time and perhaps more practice room.  “Personally, I’d like to know what the difference is going to be, but more so I’d like to know when they are going to be done,” said Jackson.

The anticipated opening is set for January 2011, and as Montagano reassured, “We are on schedule.” 

Many athletes do not know what to expect in the new renovation.

“I do not even know if they are going to get new equipment.  I hope they do because the stuff is really old, and I heard they are going to expand the weight room, which would be nice because it was pretty cramped before,” said Fox.

According to Montagano, the new recreation center will have many exciting new benefits including cycling, aerobics, palates, and yoga studios, an extension to the weight room allowing for more natural light, and more open space on the second floor.  There will also be a circuit area upstairs with a “curves” station for 30 minute workouts.  The track will have new gym flooring, and new much-requested weight and cardio equipment will be installed.

“There has been a lot of hype about it. I really don’t know what to expect. I am hoping it will be better because what is the point of a renovation if it is not improved,” asked Jackson.

While the University’s Recreation Center is under construction, students are forced to exercise on a single basketball court. (Ashley Melo/The Chronicle)