High-traffic weight room needs all-around funding

by Our View

Picture this, you decide to go to the gym, and you walk all the way over there only to find out that all of the treadmills are taken, two of the ellipticals are broken and the third is taken by an older woman that you know can’t possibly be a Simpson student. Does this sound familiar? The weight room at Simpson is definitely in need of a makeover. It is small, over-crowded and the equipment is old. But, what can be done?

One possibility would be to build a separate gym for the athletes and keep the old gym for others. If this were to happen, the old gym would be ignored while the athletes’ gym would receive all of the new equipment-maybe not the best idea. It already takes forever for a piece of cardio equipment to be fixed. Could you imagine the wait if there were two gyms?

The other main problem is that there is no regulation on who comes in. It’s apparent that Simpson doesn’t have the manpower to regulate who comes into the gym. However, when a gentleman brings his kids to play racquetball or an older woman is using a cardio machine anyone can probably guess they aren’t Simpson students. It is unfair that students, who actually pay to go to school here, have to wait for someone who doesn’t.

The weight room should be given more money not just to buy more weightlifting equipment but for everything. Expand the gym instead of creating two and buy some more cardio equipment–there is not nearly enough.

The problem is since no one lives in the gym (except for that occasional person, we know who you are), the gym is at the end of the list when it comes to remodeling. However, the gym is more important than the school would like to admit. The gym is significant to athletes and non-athletes alike, and it should be given more attention.