Author: Sarah Mofford
The Board of Trustees approved plans to revamp the Alumni Gym last week. The $251,000 renovations are planned to begin around exam week in December so that the new area is ready for the students’ return at the end of January. This transformation would change the under-sized basketball court and ellipses room into a modern multipurpose fitness center.
Director of Athletics Jaime Hoffman said that the timeline for renovations “may be optimistic.” The process of renovation includes a paint job, installation of day lockers and clean up of minor damages like holes in the wall, as well as installing electrical outlets into the floors and walls for exercise equipment and flat screen televisions. On top of this, the Athletics department hopes to install the rubber flooring found in many cardio rooms.
The 5,000-square-foot fitness center would provide access to a number of top-of-the-line weight and cardiovascular machines. “The machines are newer and better than most of your competitors,” said vendor Rick Moser, who is supplying Occidental with fitness equipment. Moser has worked with schools like Oxy and Pomona as a commercial Fitness Consultant.
Hoffman explained that the college bought the weight equipment but is leasing the cardio because of its tendency to become outdated. “It’s all high-quality equipment,” Hoffman said, “the kind you would find in newer fitness centers.” Hoffman also noted that there would be extended hours and that the gym would be open to the whole Oxy community.
That’s good news for students like Elaine Westcott (sophomore) who use the gym. “I choose this gym over the Rangeview gym when it is open because of its proximity to central campus, but mostly, I prefer to exercise in an open space,” Westcott said. “Though the machines are perfectly fine in the Rangeview gym, I feel claustrophobic because of the low ceiling and crowded layout of equipment.”
For pickup basketball, which presently happens mostly in the Alumni Gym, Hoffman is encouraging students to use the under-utilized outside courts on the side of Rush Gymnasium farther from campus, which recently had card access installed. The courts are high school regulation size, which is larger than the Alumni Gym’s present courts. Use of that court would make conflicts of schedule unlikely to happen. Hoffman also believes that the new machinery for the Cully Weight Room, which includes six power lifting stations, will help alleviate schedule clashes between varsity teams.
Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Coach of men’s basketball Brian Newhall said, “Losing Alumni Gym will clearly have a negative impact on the volleyball program, women’s basketball program, men’s basketball program along with open gym basketball, but a far greater number of students, staff, faculty [and] alumni will benefit from a top-of-the-line fitness center with new cardio and weight equipment.” Newhall added that “a new fitness center is a strong selling point for [the] office of admission.”
The Board of Trustees seems to agree with Newhall. “Everyone is incredibly excited. The project got unanimous yeses from the board and Jonathan [President Veitch] is devoted to fitness and is a mover on the project,” Hoffman said. “He’s committed to the development of the body and the mind.”Coach of the men’s and women’s swim and dive team M. Alexander Kuhn said, “I am really excited about the new gym as it will be a huge benefit to the dryland program of our swimming program.”
This new fitness center is part of a bigger multi-million dollar project – which is not yet approved or funded – for a whole makeover of the athletic facilities. The goal of the overall plan, according to Hoffman, is to give athletes an equal experience and not have Patterson field be the only up-to-date facility. As she described it, in addition to improving the upper soccer fields, the larger renovations could include building a new 50m pool to make it possible to hold swimming and diving competitions at Oxy, as well as water polo matches. Accompanying this would be the addition of two new tennis courts with new walkways surrounding them. The plans may also add spectator seats to the new pool area, tennis area, and in the basketball court. The court seats would hold up to 2,000 spectators.
However, captain of the Oxy softball team Alyssa Smith (senior) said that the administration should ask for student input concerning the renovations. “[The administration needs] to prioritize and get some feedback from athletes that use those [facilities] to see which [improvement] is needed first and also don’t go overboard, just do what is needed.”
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