By Joshua Phelps
The Scene staff
Forest Park’s Student Government Association wants the college to end a policy that prevents students from using the fitness center unless they’re taking a fitness class.
“(The students) feel like it should be open to everybody, and it’s not,” said SGA Vice President Lester Hope, 19.
Hope, a forensics major, said he has personally received several complaints about it.
The fitness center is in the Physical Education Building on campus. It has weights and other strength equipment, as well as cardio machines such as recumbent bikes and treadmills.
About 200 students enroll in fitness classes each semester, giving them access to the fitness center, according to Mark Applegate, lead faculty member in health and wellness. Forest Park has a total enrollment of more than 4,650 students this spring.
General transfer studies student Sadie Schaffner, 19, who’s taking a pilates class, called the fitness-center policy “kind of ridiculous. It should be more accessible.”
Students must be enrolled in a fitness class or be auditing a fitness class to use the fitness center, Applegate said. The same policy is in place on other St. Louis Community College campuses.
The main reason is lack of funding, Applegate said.
“We don’t have money to monitor (it as a recreational facility),” he said. “We’ve never been designed to run it that way. If that money is made available, then there’s the possibility that open use could occur. But that’s something that is not our academic department’s decision.”
The college allowed open access to a weight room that adjoins the fitness center at one time, but that policy was discontinued because of thefts, Applegate said.
From 2014 to the present, 15 reports of thefts in the Physical Education Building have been reported, police Capt. Benjamin Talley said. That includes one theft in 2018.
Swimming pool open
The Physical Education Building also has a gymnasium and swimming pool. The gymnasium is designated for sporting events only. Any student can use the swimming pool from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
“We do have open use for the pool because we have the ability to pay for a lifeguard to monitor and supervise it,” Applegate said.
The SGA has been working on the fitness-center issue since December, Hope said. Among other things, members are developing a petition for students to sign, asking the college to make it more accessible.
Campus Life Manager Donivan Foster, who serves as SGA sponsor, said SGA members are seeking feedback from students to help them prepare to take their concerns to the STLCC Board of Trustees and administration.
The issue goes beyond use of the fitness center, according to SGA.
“We’re finding that students are looking for places to be able to spend their time,” Foster said. “This office (and) the vice president’s office have been trying to identify and nail down some dedicated student space.”
Concern is ‘widespread’
Frustration over use of the Forest Park fitness center is nothing new. Students have been asking for expanded access for years.
Current concerns about the fitness-center policy are “relatively widespread,” Foster said. Many students note that other schools offer gym facilities to all students, not just those enrolled in fitness classes.
“It just raises some questions for students who are looking for more places to be able to let off some energy, work out, do things in between class,” Foster said.
The college allowed staff and alumni to use the fitness center for a while, even if they weren’t taking fitness classes, but that is no longer the case, Applegate said.
“That was an initiative in order to see how much interest (there was to) develop and possibly pay for it,” he said. “The leadership individuals need to approve the continued open use of the facilities.”
The health and wellness department would like to expand access to Physical Education Department facilities, Applegate said, but that can’t happen unless its budget is increased.
“There needs to be money in order to staff it safely to keep it open,” he said. “We can’t just leave the doors open 24/7 for anyone to access because of the potential safety concerns associated with that.”