In response to growing demand for campus workout facilities, PNW is expanding hours at the university Fitness and Recreation Centers.
Starting in the spring, the centers will be open eight extra hours each week – till 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The new hours are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays; 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays, 9 a.m. to Noon on Saturdays and Noon to 3 p.m. on Sundays.
“With our athlete training in the morning [the FRC] gets packed and in the evening it is packed with mostly students,” said assistant athletic director Matt Dudzik, who oversees the facilities. “It’s hard to workout in the FRC while students are here so some of the staff will usually come in after hours when no one else is around.”
Though PNW fitness centers get a lot of competition from gymnasiums throughout The Region, Dudzik said the university is trying to accommodate demand without physically expanding its facilities, particularly since the newer gym in Westville is often quiet.
“Equipment can be an issue, [Hammond’s FRC is] not a huge fitness center,” he said. “Westville’s fitness center is about 6 or 7 years old with two stories that are never overcrowded.”
Some students may not know it, but they’re membership for the FRC is included in annual fees. They do not need to pay extra to access the campus facilities.
“PNW’s student service fee is included in student’s tuition which covers the fitness center …similar to how all students pay a small parking fee included in their tuition,” Dudzik said.
Free admission notwithstanding, some students prefer to work out near their hometowns.
“I go to the Schererville YMCA gym because it is closer to home and they have a lot of good equipment there,” said Secondary Education major Rafael Escutia, a junior. “The PNW Fitness Center is the first gym I went to when I had started to work out, but I stopped going because it is very far from home and I didn’t think there was enough space or equipment.
“Every time I went it was very crowded,” he said. “I prefer the Y over the FRC because I think the Y’s equipment and machines are a little more beneficial for me and they have a bigger space.”
Escutia said newer facilities and equipment is an attractive alternative to the Hammond FRC.
“I would choose to go to the … Y because the machine placement is much better, there’s more room, it’s newly furnished, up to date and more effective,” he said. “It’s just a bigger building all around.”