Weight room Inquiry and subsequent response(s)
Itemized list of equipment to follow WHO WANTS TO JOIN ME ?
posted over 11 years ago
Thomas started the good fight. Let's keep it going
Dr. Hrabowski,
I am a current graduate student at UMBC and the president of the chemistry graduate student association. As graduate students, we spend long hours laboring on our research . In essence the lab and the department becomes our second home. The passion for excellence is empowering as well as tiring and presence of a usable and safe gym allows for the means for relaxation, stress release and increased productivity. Since my time at UMBC (Summer 2012), I have seen the weight room to be in a continual state of disarray with a plethora of broken, almost broken and barely working gym equipments. Our collective frustrations with the gym weight room as well as broken cardio equipment were voiced to considerable support by Thomas Rogers ( His post received an overwhelming support http://my.umbc.edu/discussions/6171 )
In light of his efforts to bring attention to the fore-mentioned problem, steps were conceived by the administration to resolve them. However, such actions have not come to fruition. The SGA announcements made at the beginning of the summer made us hopeful that indeed steps were being taken ( http://my.umbc.edu/groups/sga/news/27182). However, perusal of recent discussions ( http://my.umbc.edu/discussions/8898 ) reveal that no such measure was taken.
I have attached pictures for your perusal with this email.
Furthermore, recent visits to the gym make me painfully aware that nothing has changed. It seems hardly any substantial amount of the 75,000 was invested into the weight room. The machines are still desperate for repair. The weight room also lacks proper ventilation allowing for not only a nauseous environment to exercise but also an unsafe one. Any commercial business with such wanton disregard for its consumers would lose its clientele . However, we the students are not only paying for athletic fees but have had to foot additional increase in such athletic fees.
Such actions compel me to question the integrity of the decision makers who regulate the allocation of budget for athletic development as well as the honest intentions of those elected into SGA. As a school that will educate the coming generation of leaders, aforementioned actions as such make me apprehensive. I am hopeful that you would support the needs of regular students to have a decent gym where we are able to train our bodies and be able to pursue a healthy lifestyle.
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Thanks for your well-written letter of concern, Arun. I agree that our students deserve working, safe equipment. I'm asking Tim Hall, our new AD, and VP Nancy Young to respond. (Mr. Hall only recently arrived here, but administrators and student leaders have been working on this issue for months.) Expect to hear from them shortly. I'm also asking them to keep me informed.
Freeman Hrabowski
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hi Arun,
Feel free to contact me at (phone #). We are a bit behind due to difficulty in roof repairs ( it made little sense to make necessary floor repairs until the source of water was identified and fixed) and procurement, but I assure you that the money allocated from fees is being spent exactly as promised. In fact, by the time the project is finished, we will have invested more than the promised 75,000 dollars. I'm happy to share with you what has been ordered for the room.
Tim Hall is indeed new, as Dr. Hrabowski states, but has quickly gotten involved in this project. He may be difficult to reach until next week, but I'm sure he would also be happy to talk.
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Dear Arun,
Thank you for your concern regarding the weight room and the much anticipated upgrades. As Nancy Young mentioned, we are currently finishing repairs to the roof. Once that project is completed we can move forward with flooring and installing the new equipment. I would be happy to meet with you to discuss your concerns further. Please contact me at Ph # to schedule an appointment.(edited over 11 years ago)
