Space Efficiency Issues at the Texas Tech Recreational Center



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|Space Efficiency Issues at the Texas Tech Recreational Center |

|Written for: The Texas Tech Student Government Association |

|Texas Tech Undergraduates: Jesse Finley, Sean Craus, Mark Moffett, and Brandon Perez |

|12/3/2009 |

Quick Summary

“Space Efficiency Issues at the Texas Tech Recreational Center”

Prepared by: Jesse Finley, Texas Tech Undergraduate

Sean Craus, Texas Tech Undergraduate

Mark Moffett, Texas Tech Undergraduate

Brandon Perez, Texas Tech Undergraduate

The Texas Tech Recreational Center has faced overcrowding in the free weight room consistently over the past few years. This problem affects the health of the Texas Tech students in a negative way. Our proposal highlights the negative effects of the overcrowded weight room and gives simple solutions to help fix the problem. We offer suggestions such as adding new fitness classes targeted towards men in an effort to direct the crowds away from the weight room. Also, we think that more efficient use of the space that the recreation center has will minimize the overcrowding problem. Our report will analyze this problem and give suggestions on how the SGA can present this proposal to Director of Facilities, Peewee Roberson.

Contents

Abstract 2

Background 2

How Things Are 2

Introduction 3

The Problem 3

Safety Hazards of Overcrowding 3

Health Concerns 3

Psychological Affects 4

Solutions 4

Alternative Class Options 4

Use of empty space 4

Scheduling of Classes 5

How to Implement Solutions 5

Alternative Class Options 5

Use of Empty Space 6

Scheduling of Classes 6

How to See if These Changes are Needed 6

Student Surveys 6

Occupancy Count 6

Occupancy Count Record Sheet 7

Additional Photos 9

Conclusion 13

The Next Step 13

Things the SGA can do for our idea. 13

Background

How Things Are

Going to the gym and getting a strong workout is a way to get healthy, relieve stress, and tone up the body. What if the gym wasn’t a place where you could exercise? The very purpose of the gym would be hindered. This is an embellished example of how the Texas Tech recreational facility is so overcrowded that working out becomes a hassle.

The free weight room in the recreation center has become so overcrowded that people often choose not to come. At almost every station there is a line of people waiting to use the equipment. We’re certain that patrons have experienced this frustration given that they have recently visited the recreation center. Even walking around in the gym is elbow to elbow.

With limited space to complete workouts, people have to limit their exercise routines. Unfortunately, we have heard many people have bought non-affiliated Texas Tech gym memberships due to this increasing problem of overcrowding.

Comparison of Recreational Centers

The Texas Tech Recreational Center is 242,000 square feet of space. The student body is around 28,500 students.

Compared to other University recreation facilities, our recreation center seems to be somewhat appropriate for our school.

Texas A&M has a recreation center that is 400,000 square feet, but they have 36,500 students. Also, University of Texas has an even bigger recreation center with 500,000 square feet, but then again they have 49,700 students. Each school’s recreation center has enough space for the students to do what they need to.

Introduction to the Problem

One of the main areas used by students is the recreational center. This area provides the student with a place to engage in sport activities and to work out. A main part of the recreation center is the free weight room. Our proposal addresses a few problems that occur with this free weight area.

First, we will discuss the current status of the recreation center and what kind of goals the school wishes to reach. There are five main problems that we will cover in our proposal. These are overcrowding, safety concerns, health concerns, psychological concerns, and overall size issues.

Potential solutions will be discussed at the end of the proposal for you to pass on. With the help of this proposal it should not be too difficult to formulate a proposal of your own to achieve changes.

Safety Hazards of Overcrowding

Many complaints about the recreation center are about overcrowding. Some students do not work out because they are frustrated due to not being able to use the equipment that they want.

There are also safety hazards associated with overcrowding. Exceeding maximum occupancy can result in lives being lost if there is an emergency. When a fire occurs in a crowded place, people will run to the exits at once, resulting in a bottleneck. The bottleneck at the exits will cause everyone to exit the building at a slower rate, which could endanger lives.

The person to contact about this information will be the Lubbock County Fire Marshal, Mike Kemp. His office is at 1515 East Ursuline Street in Lubbock. His phone number is (806) 775-2646. He will be able to determine maximum occupancy through the square footage of the area, including the obstacles that will be in the way.

Health Concerns

There are a few problems that are health related to the overcrowding in the recreation center. According to Dr. Zussman, “About 80% of all infectious diseases are transmitted by both direct and indirect contact.” (cite) This means that diseases are likely to multiply anywhere there are large amounts of people.

One of the major infections that will be caught from a workout facility is staph. When you have a large amount of people in one area it’s hard to be able to keep up with who cleans up after themselves and who doesn’t.

Another concern with a small area being overcrowded would be swine flu. Swine flu is the new brand of flu that is posing a scare to the United States. This disease is spread by close contact to other people who have it.(cite)

A person may not be aware that they have swine flu. Many people may not be sick enough yet to realize they have the flu. This would be a problem in any work out facility.

With the overcrowding that occurs in the recreation center, we expose a larger number of people for the disease to take hold. Our suggestions for you would be to consult doctors to gather more substantial information regarding this subject. As a school it should be a top priority to find ways to reduce the chance of spreading diseases.

Psychological Affects

As you may have experienced before, being in an overcrowded environment can be very frustrating. The recreational center is a place that is meant to enhance a person’s health, mentally and physically. To have either of these two hindered is counterproductive.

Unfortunately, sometimes the free weight room’s overcrowding creates a negative environment for Tech students. Anxiety can be produced in a social situation where there is an abundance of unfamiliar people. Anxiety is an uncomfortable negative feeling that increases self-doubt, fear, and jittery feelings. If anxiety is internalized it creates a mess of psychological problems, including depression.

Solutions

Alternative Class Options

One of the main attractions at the recreation center is the Raider X classes that students can participate in. There is a wide selection of classes that work out enthusiasts can participate in from abs to spinning classes. This is a good place to start looking at for solutions to the overcrowded free weight room.

Many of the classes that are offered at the recreation center appeal to a neutral or female population (see picture below). The classes focus on endurance, flexibility, or toning of muscles. The recreation center could offer more classes that aim at things that men tend to look for while working out. This would mean offering classes that work on muscle strength.

A few ideas of classes that could be offered would be P90x, and the Spartan challenge. These kinds of classes would draw a large interest in the male population. This would mean that the classes would draw not just the girls but also the guys away from the free weight area.

The classes mentioned are not the only options. There are many other types of classes that you could suggest the recreation center look into. These classes would also be helpful since the recreation center would be able to charge the class fee and make money from these new classes.

[pic](Class opportunities for women only)

Use of Empty Space

The overcrowding in the free weight room results from the room holding more people than it was designed for.

A possible solution for this would be locating areas that could be converted to extra free weight rooms. One of these areas is the upstairs area that is used for couches and ping pong tables. This is a large space that could be put to much better use than what it is currently used for.

At any given time during the day the upstairs area has less than fifteen people. This is likely due to the fact that patrons rarely go to the recreation center to enjoy the lounge. People go to the recreation center to work out, not to relax on a couch. There is also a small area down by the rock wall that is empty most of the time. A small amount of weight lifting equipment could be placed in these spaces. This would direct some of the people out of the current free weight area in to this new area.

[pic] [pic]

(Empty areas in the recreation center during peak hours)

Scheduling of Classes

Texas Tech offers many academic accredited fitness and wellness classes at the recreational center. These classes can range from walking to Tai Chi. Most of these classes involve weight training as one of the course requirements. These types of classes are scheduled throughout the entire day including the hours when the recreation center is most crowded.

A solution for the crowding of the recreation center could be to schedule classes that require weight training at hours when the recreation center is not at its busiest. Such classes would be weight lifting, diet and exercise, and others. If these classes were rescheduled then it would relieve some of the overcrowding in the free weight room.

How to Implement Solutions

Alternative Class Options

Most of the classes that are offered by the recreation center are geared towards women. However, men are the vast majority of people overcrowding the free weight room, not women. There are class types that could really help direct some of this crowd away from the weight room into other areas.

Here are a few steps that you could take to help implement this solution:

• Survey the student population to see how many people would be willing to participate in classes.

• Research classes that would appeal to men such as P90X.

• Locate areas that would be available to hold new classes.

Use of Empty Space

There are many spaces in the recreation center that could be utilized more efficiently. These areas could be used as alternative lifting areas to help divide the number of people in one room.

Here are three steps that would put you on track to implementing this idea:

• Measure square footage of the empty spaces.

• Research size, type and price of equipment for new spaces.

• Inform students of new areas to start redirecting the crowd.

Scheduling of Classes

Many exercise classes offered by Texas Tech are taken at the recreation center. These classes need to utilize the free weight room which only adds to the overcrowding. Reorganizing the class schedule to avoid the crowded times will help with overcrowding.

Here are some ideas to start this process:

• Research which classes at Tech are popular.

• Research peak hours for the free weight room.

• Rewrite the class schedule so weight lifting classes are during down times

How to See if These Changes are Needed

Student Surveys

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to get a large group of people’s opinions is through surveys.

The best way to get results from a survey in this situation is to create one from scratch. It isn’t difficult and could provide a lot of insight into the impact of this problem.

A few examples of questions you can ask in the survey are, “How difficult is it for you to use equipment due to overcrowding?” or “Would you attend workout classes for men?” The answers to these questions should help you determine how severe this problem is. It would also answer whether or not men would be willing to participate in these new classes.

Occupancy Count

It is important to know how many people are in the free weight room and how many people should be in there at any given time. The recreational center only counts people as they first go into the recreation center. They do not count them as they go into the free weights room. No one knows if the occupancy for that room is over a safe capacity.

There are ways to know what times during the day that the free weight room is at a high capacity count. Since there are usually two recreation employees in the free weights room they could alternate taking count at the entrance.

A counter is an inexpensive tool that allows for people to be counted as they go in and out of the free weight room. The purpose is to see at what times of the day that the free weight room is the most crowded so classes can be scheduled around those times in an effort to relieve overcrowding.

Occupancy Count Record Sheet

The main purpose of the record sheet is to discover at what times during the day the free weight room is overcrowded. The recreation center employees could fill out the record sheet every hour for one month.

The usual workout lasts 45-60 minutes, so the hour time interval should provide very specific time slots to create new classes.

The month long recording process will be thorough enough to account for workout trends, and gain enough data to make logical decisions regarding this proposal. An example time record sheet is on the following page.

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Additional Photos

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(Classrooms on the second floor that can be used for equipment or workouts)

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(Photos of the upstairs lounge)

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(The soccer court can also be used as another exercise class through the curtain as a partition.)

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(This room is used for spin class, but it can also be used for other classes as well)

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(Empty racquetball courts can be used for exercise classes)

Conclusion

The Next Step

After reviewing our proposal, it is our hope that the SGA will take the next step in this project. Our group understands that it is not in the SGA’s power to approve our proposal’s potential solutions regarding the overcrowded free weight room at the Texas Tech Recreation Center.

However there is something the SGA can do in order to get our proposal set into motion. We have determined that the person required to approve our ideas is Peewee Roberson. Here is Mr. Roberson’s contact information.

|Peewee Roberson, Director of Recreational Facilities |

|Phone: 806-742-3351 |

|Email: peewee.roberson@ttu.edu |

As Director of Recreational Facilities, Mr. Roberson is the clear choice for the SGA to present our proposal to.

Things the SGA can do for our idea.

As students, it is your duty to help solve any problems that the student body as a whole feels is out of place and needs fixing. It is our belief that you all can do a couple of select things to increase the effectiveness of our proposal.

First, you need the student’s support. Therefore, we suggest that SGA conduct a full student survey concerning the recreation center and its overcrowded free weight room. We are confident that there will be more than enough support in your survey that can speak to Mr. Roberson louder than any proposal ever could.

Second, but most importantly, you can be proactive with our proposal idea in one major way, money. Mr. Roberson’s primary concern with our proposal will in some way revolve around funding for the idea. The easiest way for you to get around this would be to simply ask Mr. Roberson the current status of available funds for a project such as ours.

Some things to consider and questions to ask Mr. Roberson should include:

• Where will the money come from?

• Is there money available in the current budget to fund this idea?

o If not, is fundraising a potential solution?

• Private Contributions?

As students, we lack the time, means, and capacity to conduct such detailed research. However, the SGA is more than capable of completing these tasks. It is our hope that the SGA deem it fit to carry out our requests to Peewee Roberson.

Thank you for your time and contributions to the Texas Tech student body.

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