Campus Rec Gym hitting maximum capacity

The UNH Campus Rec gym is as crowded as ever. With over 100 students in the small weight room at once, students want to see a change.
Students are asking student senate to help them renovate and expand the student gym. The overcrowding of the gym is forcing students to wait in line for machines and even worse be turned away.
Christian Beck a supervisor at the gym checks how many people are in the weight room every half an hour. “Every time I go in there, there are at least one hundred people in there at a time. If you have ever been in the gym from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. you know that it’s going to be busy. It’s “prime-time”.” Prime-time is the time where the gym is the busiest and when most students are at the gym. This also includes other areas of the gym such as the basketball courts, and racquetball courts.
UNH senior Alison Zebendon hits the gym every day. However lately she says “I’ve been getting up at like six to go because it’s so crowded in the afternoons and nights.” The busyness of the gym can be a good thing but sometimes it does turn students away. “Sometimes I get there at night and it’s so busy I leave. I hate when it’s busy because I don’t want to wait for a machine.”
UNH has been putting an emphasis on healthy living. The healthy living campaign incorporates the dining halls and the gym. It gives students an incentive to go and work out. With programs at the gym such as Make the Time, students are entered to win prizes if they get their cards signed everyday of the week for two weeks.
The facilities at UNH have just been remodeled. With brand new weight machines arriving at the beginning of the semester, the gym is seeing all time high numbers. Last year, the gym went above its estimated attendance. This year the gym is looking to break that all time high again. Director of facilities Dave Leach is excited about the popularity of the gym.
“It’s nice to see so many people working out. We definitely need some updates and some expanding but right now we just don’t have the money for that. The new equipment is great and I think that people are happy with that change, however there still is just a higher demand than what we have space for.”
Hanging up outside of the lock rooms at campus rec is a motion to the student senate to expand the student gym. The gym for varsity athletes is state of the art however the gym that accommodates the majority of the student body is suffering and overcrowded. The varsity men’s hockey team has their own personal gym in the Whittemore center which is for their personal use. Students are seeing this as giving varsity athletes special treatment for such a small percentage of the student body.
Although there isn’t a paper that follows up what the student senate has decided, students are hoping that an expansion will come soon. With a ten year renovation happening across the street at the field house, students are hoping that the student senate will help fund a remodel and renovation of the gym. Leach says that he is excited for the possibilities but isn’t holding his breath.