New fitness program offers free classes; Student clubs bumped to make room
A new fitness program providing free classes to students and faculty in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building is starting Monday, but the new classes have displaced student dance clubs that have no other place to practice.
The fitness program, Fun, Fit & Forever, was organized by Campus Recreation as a way to promote fitness and offer recreation opportunities to students. The classes are funded by student fees and are free to students with a current student ID. Classes available include yoga, hip hop dance, step, kick boxing, aerobics and jazzercise, as well as hiking and cycling classes which are not held in the HPER.
Shelly Bybee, Fieldhouse manager and facilities scheduler who coordinated Fun, Fit & Forever, said nothing like this has been offered for students before. An older program, Recreation Instruction Program, was geared more toward faculty and their families and offered classes like karate, belly dancing, swimming and ballet.
Bybee said the program was organized this summer because Campus Recreation felt the HPER should offer classes for students because it is funded by student fees.
“There’s not a lot to do here in Logan for (students), so we thought it would be a fun, interactive thing,” she said.
Kevin Kobe, director of Campus Recreation, said he hoped the program would offer something to the many students who don’t use the Fieldhouse.
“We wanted something for people who wanted something different,” he said. “That’s our job, to provide recreational activities for students.”
Bybee said the hiking class would be going on three different hikes this semester and the cycling class would take a road tour through Logan as well as a tour through backcountry roads and a mountain bike trail. Kobe said the classes would also teach road safety.
Bybee said she hoped classes would eventually draw between 40 and 60 people each class. The classes are scheduled to take place Monday through Thursday evenings in the HPER.
Not everyone is happy about the new program, however.
Because of the new demand for space for the free fitness classes, several dance clubs have found their usual time slots taken up. Whereas many liked to practice on weeknights in the HPER dance studios, now they find they must take a slot on Friday or Saturday, when fewer people are available to attend club practices, or hold their meetings in less desirable spaces.
Benjamin Sundberg, president of the USU Swing Club, said his club had to take a Friday time slot even though they usually practice on Thursdays in the hope of getting more people to come. He said the best place on campus for dance groups to practice is HPER Room 215. Bybee said 215 is the “most sought-out place” in the building. There is another studio in HPER Room 102, but it is smaller and has lower ceilings than Room 215.
Sundberg said he was disappointed the Swing Club’s usual slot was taken.
“I would like to know if there are only a few people attending the classes, if they could move it to the wrestling room,” he said.
Sundberg said the club has occasionally used the HPER basketball courts for practice, but because the shoes they use mark the floors and the courts are now held for students to play ball, that is no longer an option. Another dance studio in the Fine Arts building is not available for clubs to use, he said.
Cameron Peterson, president of the West Coast Swing Club, which is just starting up this semester, said he secured a time slot for the club on Wednesday nights, but the only room they could get was HPER Room 203, the wrestling room. The room is not set up to be a dance studio, as it lacks mirrors on the walls and the floors are padded for wrestling.
“The floors are a lot different,” Peterson said. “It’s not so much the mirrors that concern us. It’s more that we don’t want to dance on a floor our feet stick to.
“I was just happy to get a slot, it was so packed.”
Peterson said he thinks the fitness program is a good idea, but he is concerned about what it means for the dance clubs.
“It looks like they have a lot of stuff going on,” he said. “That sort of program sounds like a good thing. I understand that they want to fill up the facilities. But it makes it harder for us to make our club useful to students. (Dancing) is growing in popularity. We’re going to need more space if more people want to come.”
Peterson said in their first meeting on Wednesday, they had close to 30 people in attendance.
One club was so dissatisfied with the slot they got they rented a room in the Whittier Center to practice in on weeknights. Traci Hanzilik, coordinator for the Middle Eastern Dance Club, which is not officially affiliated with USU, said she was frustrated because she felt the university wasn’t supportive of the clubs anymore.
“We no longer have a place to go at a reasonable time,” she said. “I got a slot on Friday because I probably was a pain in the butt.”
Kobe said the usual pecking order for time slots at the HPER is physical education classes for credit first, then activities for students offered through Campus Recreation, such as fitness classes or intramural sports, then athletics, then free student recreation, such as a pick-up game, club sports and student clubs and organizations, and lastly community groups.
“None of this is a static thing,” Kobe said. “The schedule changes every semester.
“It’s also a dynamic policy. If people have concerns they can write them down and submit them to the HPER policy board.”
For class times for Fun, Fit & Forever, go to www.usu.edu/camprec/rip.
USU Swing Club meets Fridays from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in HPER Room 102.
West Coast Swing Club meets Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in Room 203.
Middle Eastern Dance Club meets Friday from 6 to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Room 215.
-elizabeth.lawyer@aggiemail.usu.edu