When discussing campus renovations, UNC’s historic buildings that are hundreds of years old are often mentioned. But recently, students and campus officials have been calling for upgrades to a building constructed much more recently – the Student Recreation Center.
The SRC was built in 1991 and it’s UNC’s largest campus recreation facility. And according to UNC’s Director of Campus Recreation, Jason Halsey, the building gets a lot of use throughout the day.
“If you were to look right now, it says the weight room is 77 percent occupied, which is busy,” Halsey said. “Typically, between 3 and 6pm this will be over 100 percent.”
When the weight room is at its fullest, students will create lines sometimes 6 or 7 people long to use the machines and workout stations.
“One of the things we don’t like is this feels like a basement, you know, it feels like a dungeon almost,” said Halsey, “you come in here, it’s not super inviting. We’re looking to do lighting upgrades, airflow upgrades – when this place is really crowded, it doesn’t always smell the best and the air can get really sticky, especially in the warmer months.”
Halsey isn’t alone in wanting upgrades. One of the main drivers behind the cause is UNC Student Body President Christopher Everett.
Everett said the desire for better workout spaces came to him after seeing what other colleges in the UNC system, like UNC-Charlotte, had to offer.
“And I went and I saw this like, five-story, fully glass rec facility,” said Everett. “I’m seeing people like running tracks or something on the top floor, people are dancing in studios, like, it was crazy. It was like the craziest thing I feel like I’ve ever seen in my entire life and it just made me feel so strongly about advocating in this kind of way because … I mean, we’re Carolina.”
At recent UNC Board of Trustees meetings, the topic has been gaining traction, especially from members like Jennifer Evans and Chair John Preyer.
“Our student workout facilities are subpar compared to a lot of our peers and as the parent of children who have toured lots of different campuses, I bet you have seen some of our peer institutions’ facilities compared to ours,” Preyer said.
Everett even took some of the trustees on a tour of Fetzer Hall and the SRC after their meeting on January 16th, so they could have a chance to see the facilities for themselves.
“It was enough to light a fire under the issue even more,” said Everett. “Taking them to that space where they can see how few treadmills, like how limited our space is and how many renovations are needed to create a competitive space compared to the system was really, really great.”
According to Halsey, UNC’s campus rec facilities have about 2,000 to 3,000 visitors per day, which adds up to about half a million visits over the course of a year. So, he said, a project like this one will take a lot of planning.
“It’s a massive project and like I said, we’ve been having these conversations for a really long time and because there are so many moving parts, everything really has to just fall in line perfectly for something like this to become a reality,” said Halsey.
Still, he said getting the BOT and the student body involved are both steps in the right direction.
“I think any future project that we may take on is going to have to be funded in a variety of ways and from a variety of sources of funding,” Halsey added. “We’re going to have to reach out to the community and use some development dollars. We’re going to have to look at and see what our students are willing to support. We’re going to have to get the administrative support from, you know, UNC and the Board of Trustees.”
As his team drafts up plans, Halsey said they have to keep in mind the updated facilities will likely be used by students who are currently in middle and high school. One of the biggest challenges will be designing a space that can stand the test of time – and still feel up to date 33 years later.
Featured image via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill
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