I am a gym rat. I love to work out. If you ever take umbrage to anything I write and you want to tell me in person, you can find me at IMPE at 0630 Monday through Friday. But lately the closing of the majority of IMPE and the mismanagement of Campus Recreation resources have really been what’s on my mind.

The Department of Campus Recreation has mismanaged its resources so horribly since I have been here that I’ve been left to wonder why the entire planning section of the staff hasn’t been fired. The gym-faithful were told that CRCE would be an awe-inspiring new facility.

It’s a complete disappointment.

The weight section is extremely cramped. When you first walk into the foyer you are bombarded by open, unneeded space. The aquatic center is dominated by, of all things, an indoor waterslide. Campus Recreation has tried to sell the aquatic area of CRCE as a family area. I am a single college student. Most of the people using these facilities are single college students. Why are Campus Rec buildings family places? Whose idea was it to use University funds to help create family fun centers? That’s what the local park districts are for.

Campus facilities should be a place for college students. Go there some night between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. With all the overcrowding at CRCE and IMPE’s East Wing during peak hours, the space holding the waterslide and other family amenities could have been used better.

As bad of a snafu as CRCE is, the plans to renovate IMPE are ten times worse. Last year IMPE shut down a multipurpose room that included numerous cardio machines, multiple weight rooms and a stretching room. The explanation that was given was that these closings were necessary to prepare IMPE to undergo renovations. During this time nothing was done to these spaces. The primary weightlifting space was turned into a place for the University table tennis (read: Ping Pong) club to practice.

My admittedly large Ping Pong bias aside, why did Campus Rec not start renovating that space last year? Or, if the plans had to change, why did they not open these spaces back up? Even accounting for some of the equipment being moved up and into the East Wing, the dumbbells in the East Wing are brand new. Moreover, there are still many machines and some equipment in multiple rooms in the downstairs of IMPE that could still be used.

The majority of IMPE is going to be shut down for 24 to 27 months, in addition to the parts of it that have already been “under construction” for nearly a year. That means that sections of IMPE will be shut down for three years or more. The planners should have, and still need to, come up with a better plan.

I am never one to complain without offering a solution. So why not renovate everything west of the locker room area before shutting down the center section of IMPE that includes the stretching room, main weight room-turned-exclusive-Ping Pong center and racquetball courts? By keeping this center section open the additional space could be used for weights and cardio equipment to help relieve the stresses on CRCE and IMPE’s East Wing, not to mention triple the number of racquetball courts.

My proposal would require changing around the horrible plans already in place, but my plan makes sense, at least at 6:30 in the morning.

Tom Amenta is a sophomore in LAS. His column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at [email protected].