A variety of renovations and improvements are bouncing their way into the Student Recreational Sports Complex.
“The improvements we are trying to make here are based on student needs,”said Mike Giles, the Rec Center’s interim director.
He said University students can expect an increase in overall square footage of the facility.
Giles said the center could expand by an estimated 6,000 square feet, but they still are working on the exact number.
He said the extra space will provide for an increase in the pieces of fitness equipment.
The space also will allow the Rec Center staff to create a better arrangement of space inside the facility in order to have better programming and to meet recreational needs, Giles said.
An example of this is the multi-purpose room, which will be split in half to create three different multi-purpose rooms. This will allow three activities — instead of just one — to happen at the same time.
He said the organization of the Rec Center will change as well.
Currently the way the facility is set up, the weight rooms are on two separate floors, Giles said. They will move the free weight weight-lifting equipment and the cardio equipment to the first floor.
He also said the Rec Center is in the process of developing a rock climbing wall, which they hope to have completed in the fall of 2004.
Giles said they are hoping to do some of those projects earlier and have certain areas open to students.
One of the goals during the whole renovation process is to maintain the operation of the facility, he said.
So far the student response has been positive, he said. Rec staff hope that continues.
Michael Guidry, a computer science senior, said the weight room equipment is really nice, considering what students pay to use the complex.
Brady Lemoine, a management senior, said the improvements and renovations are good.
“When they put this stuff in, it was 50 percent better than it was,” Lemoine said, referring to the weight-lifting equipment on the first floor of the Rec Center.
He said if the Rec Center improvements continue, it could become a first-class facility.
Giles said renovations to the women’s weight room still are under consideration.
Callie Hollier, a marketing senior who works out at the Rec Center at least three times a week, said the women’s weight room is pretty crowded and some of the equipment is falling apart.
“I think if the guy’s locker room can be renovated, why can’t [the] women’s,” Hollier said.
She said the women’s weight room has at least two nice machines.
Giles said the educational classrooms will move to the front of the building and the administrative offices, in the front of the building on the first floor, will move upstairs.
Improvements also will take place outside the Rec Center.
Giles said the Sports Rec Field at River Road is expected to be completed by the fall of 2004, and two standard-size sand volleyball courts are expected to be completed this semester.
He said it is hard to specify which day all the renovations will be made, but they are looking at the fall of 2006 for all of them to be completed.
Other important improvements are not to the building, but hopefully to the staff.
University students got to interact with the four candidates competing for the position of Student Recreational Sports Complex director, the seat vacated by Elaine Purdy.
University students and the Rec Center staff got the chance to personally interview Julian Wright, a candidate for the position Monday.
They asked questions about the Master Plan, pay raises and about Wright’s background.
Wright has been director of Suny Cortland Red Sports in upstate New York for 12 years.
He told Rec student staff members and University students he is a champion for students.
“To get back to an SEC school… is a dream come true,” Wright said.
He said having a young staff, extra field space and renovations are taking the Rec Center in the right direction.
However, it is important for the Rec Center staff and faculty to form relationships with student government and the university administration, Wright said. He added that politically positioning themselves on campus would help the Rec Center get the funds they need to expand.
He said at Suny Cortland he asked student government for an increase in student fees to pay for the recreation center.
Wright said the student fee at Suny Cortland is $35 a semester and students do not have to pay for intramural sports except golf and tennis.
He said whether he can bring this aspect of the Suny Cortland recreation center to LSU depends on the situation presented to him.
He also said it is important for the Rec Center staff to let students know what is going on at the Rec.
“We have to let people know the good things that are happening,” Wright said. “You have to take a student-to-student approach on that.”
He did like the fact that University students could walk into the Rec Center and do multiple things, he said. However, he did not like the layout of the cardio equipment, and said the center could use a new paint job.
Wright said, if he were to become director of Rec Sports at LSU, his number one priority would be to expand facility space.
The LSU Rec Center is not big enough for 31,000 people, he said.