Did you use your campus sport facilities as a student there?

[shootingstar]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/U...364/story.html There's a huge ruckus on how this university plans to fund/deal with varsity/competitive sports vs. rec. club sports for the students. I was amazed that every student must pay the obligatory $200.00 annually as part of their tuition fees, just for varsity-rec. sports funding. Not sure if it includes rights for every full time student to use the campus facilities. (ie. as a full time student you get to use the library facilities...which includes the expensive research databases that cost millions of dollars to support the licenses.)

It got me thinking: as a university student when I went to 2 different universities over 5 years...I never once made use of the gyms. I didn't even investigate any of the exercise programs to see if they were free or what their cost was. I was so focused on my academic studies ....and later socializing with some people.

It terms of fitness...the only thing I did was walk to and from where I lived and campus daily. I did that 80% of the time. lst university was a daily walk of 8 km. 2nd university was daily walk of 2.5 km. round trip. I also walked to go the grocery store to get food. I never lived in any of the dorms for pre-set cafeteria food.

That's all. But it was helpful...I walked off my study stress. I also went for long walks 3-4 times per year: each campus had some huge beautiful green park spaces. Lovely in fall and summer. And no, I didn't have a weight problem: I couldn't afford to buy pizza, pop.

Looking back, I would have now at least checked the gymn situation.

[Crankin]

Exercise was not part of my life in college, although walking across the ASU campus was an exercise in itself, in 110 F weather.
However, when I was getting my first masters, I was a relatively poor young single teacher, taking classes at night and during summer sessions. Near the end of my degree, I did sign up for what was a calisthenics/aerobics class, led by a grad student, at the gym. I had a locker for free in the gym, and I took class before school, in the mornings. This is what actually got me started on exercise. I really can't remember if I paid a fee for the class, or just signed up. This was in 1979, so while the facilities were OK, nothing like the fitness centers schools have now.
ETA: I did have to take 2 semesters of PE, both which were done in my freshman year, at 2 different schools; the first was at Lesley (where I started school and where I also got my masters in counseling), where everyone took a dance type of gym class (it was a girl's college, after all, in 1971). Then, I took modern dance at Miami-Dade CC.

[Eden]

PE was a requirement to graduate where I went to college... there were some fluff classes (you could talk billiards as a PE for example), but you could only take the same PE twice. I recall doing downhill skiing, x-country skiing, billiards, volley ball & yoga. My husband did some of the same and also did skeet shooting and fencing.

While we were there the college built a great big new fitness center (it actually was finished something crazy like 2 years ahead of schedule because of a mild fall and finishing the concrete foundation pour ahead of time).

addition - I went to a small private college - the only team I recall getting much ado was the hockey team .. and maybe women's lacrosse

[OakLeaf]

I sprained my knee in soccer try-outs my first year, and spent a lot of that year in the pool and the athletic trainers' office. (I didn't swim laps again for over 20 years, I was so sick of it!)

The next year they had done away with JV soccer and I didn't make the varsity team, so I played some intramural soccer and spent a lot of time in the weight room over the rest of my undergraduate years.

I took a semester (or two?) of fencing just as a lark.

I did a bit of recreational cycling and jogging then, but didn't really discover cycling as a sport until after college - and as far as becoming a runner, you've seen that happen here. When I was in law school, we were kind of an entity unto ourselves on the edge of a big university campus, and I don't think I set foot in that gym. I rode a lot in those days, both for recreation and transportation, but that was my only cardio and I wasn't doing any strength work then.

I think the funding question really depends on the school. If varsity sports bring in millions of dollars of TV money, then my opinion is that that money should go first toward athletic programs, both for the unprofitable varsity sports and for the recreational and intramural facilities. Sometimes with smaller schools, even though they don't have popular/successful Division I teams, the varsity sports support big alumni donations, and I feel pretty much the same way about that. But, if the athletic facilities aren't financially self-sustaining, then I totally agree that all students should have to pay for them, just as they pay for the buildings they don't have any classes in, or the professors in departments where they never take classes.

[tulip]

I used the gym all the time in college. I learned to use the weight room, took aerobics classes (it was the 80s, after all!), played club soccer, and swam in the pool. I also got to try sports that I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to try, like fencing and tai-chi. While I did ride my bike in college (I raced), most people did not even ride to class. I had one of the first mountain bikes on my campus and it was a novelty. $200 in fees sounds very reasonable; fitness is important and should be made available to young people.

Oh, and I did watch varsity sports: basketball (I missed Michael Jordan by one year but it was still awesome), soccer (Mia Hamm!), and even football (the team sucked but the games were fun).

[OakLeaf]

Another part of the equation is that if athletic facilities aren't part of required student fees, then financial aid won't cover them, and only wealthy students will be able to take advantage of them. That's pretty much the case in most high schools since the cuts of the 90's, which I find incredibly sad and wrong. But college isn't too late to establish healthy habits and learn body awareness, if a kid is able to be there at all.

But, "who uses them" is the wrong question, IMO. Did I take any physics courses in college? No. Do I agree that my lab fees should have been pooled with other students' to buy specialized instruments for the physics department? Emphatically yes.

[Owlie]

I went to a Div III nerd school. We did have a PE requirement (one semester's worth, I think, with most classes being half a semester). I took fencing,yoga, and some kind of cardio sport thing (which mostly consisted of running around a track). My first two years I was pretty active in our fencing club, but my second two years I dropped it because I was taking so many classes and evening labs. I bought the road bike my senior year, and started visiting the cardio room a little more regularly right before I graduated.

I didn't go near the athletic facilities at the school where I did my master's. I just never had time. The only thing I was really interested in was the pool, and it had limited hours if you weren't on the swim team. Those hours were in the evening, and guess when I had classes? And besides, why stay inside when I could go outside and ride my bike? I'm not going near the gym here. Huge Div I school? No thanks. (It's also all the way on the other side of campus.)

I can't remember what the student activity fee was. It wasn't outrageous, though.