Plan in the Works for a New Recreation Center

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Stony Brook's current recreational facilities are overburdened during peak times /Donalda Leveille SBI

By Shonto Olander

If you’ve been to the Wellness Center at night or when class has just ended, there’s a long line of people waiting to get on the treadmill or hit the weights. Overcrowding seems to be a common problem at Stony Brook. The university struggles between meeting the demand of students using the gym and what limited space is available.

Specifically, the SAC- and to a lesser extent the residential gyms- deal with this on a day-to-day basis. “We get over 800 students a day, and when it’s really busy there’s well over a thousand,” according to Dr. Susan DiMonda, associate dean of and director of student life, who is in charge of the Wellness Center. “I don’t like turning people away or having them wait outside to use the gym.”

The 800 plus students Dr. DiMonda alluded to represent only the Wellness Center, the most staffed and best-equipped gym on campus. The seven quad gyms scattered throughout campus can be an alternative for students, but these are only open at night, or for some are too small and lack some of the equipment one needs for a full workout.

“The Benedict gym’s hours are too late- it’s only open from 7-11. If you want to work out before that you have to go all the way to the SAC,” says Brandon Chung, a resident of H-Quad. Like the Benedict gym, all the other residential weight rooms are open during these hours, giving some students problems if they want to go to the gym early.

Other issues concern the maintenance and types of equipment available. “Some of the machines need to be fixed and other things like a couple of the bench press bars being rusty.” Thomas Tslujic, a resident of Greeley, said. “I think there’s a lot they could do to improve things.”

Of course, with any school the size of Stony Brook, some of the facilities are going to need improvement and change, and the weight rooms are no exception. Currently, the quad gyms are in the process of being renovated to keep up with the need of the students and others that use the gym. “The hardest thing is keeping up with the trends. We’re in the process of updating obsolete equipment in each of the quads to fit what people are using more of today,” says Manny Gyamfi, the director of residential services. This includes the renovation of each quad gym, with one being selected for full-scale renovation each year. This year, Kelly Quad was chosen, and will be completely upgraded before the semester ends.

His department recently conducted a survey that asked students what needs to be improved in these facilities and how clean or well maintained they are. If a student does have a specific problem, Mr. Gyamfi stated: “They can call- please get in touch with me. We need input from people using the gyms to make them better.”

With a plan in place to make changes to the quad gyms, the issue comes back to the Wellness Center. The basic problem, that of the sheer number of students that want to use this facility,emphasizes a need on campus for a bigger, more substantial gym that can handle the day-to-day ‘business’ of the student body.

A Long Term Project

Since a referendum was passed in April 2001, an all-inclusive recreation center has been in the works. The new recreation center was featured in 2002 in a Statesman article, which outlined the basic features of the center, but the plan has since changed in scope and cost. DiMonda said it would cost close to $38 million to build the recreation center, a facility that would include a 15,000 square foot weight room- approximately five times the size of the current Wellness Center. Also, it would contain several basketball courts, an indoor track and an indoor soccer and floor hockey arena. The facility would be open 18 hours a day and would be located between the Union and the Sports Complex.

Funding for the project has been the main holdup. In April 2005, Stony Brook received a budget allocation from Governor Pataki for $19.5 million, but has since been unable to find any more funding. The budget allocation is still well short of the estimated $38 million to build the facility, and the possibility of finding more grant money is uncertain.

So until this new all-in-one facility can be fully funded, DiMonda said the plan is to keep the residence hall gyms and continue to maintain and improve the SAC. “We could try to build with what we have, but it still wouldn’t fit the needs of the students,” she said.

“What will really help is the new Recreation Center, but we’d rather not do it than build it too small,” said Antony Bonavita, who heads the Sports Complex facility. “I have to tip my hat to them for not building it just to build it.”

For now, students and the administration alike must wait until the funding surfaces. In the meantime, both must work around what is available and hope for the best.