Tuesday August 21, 2001 |

Arizona Daily Wildcat

In addition to its new classes, the Student Recreation Center also received a minor facelift Aug. 13-15 when it was closed for several much-needed repairs, equipment replacements and employee training sessions.

"All these facilities can't be finished during business hours," Brian Carswell, associate director of Campus Recreation, said about having to close the center for three days. "Especially in the women's locker rooms. It's difficult to get women tradesmen in there to work."

Among the repairs made were replacing shower heads in the locker rooms, hanging a new scoreboard in the north gym, re-strapping several pool chairs, scrubbing down the pool deck and re-flooring the south gym, multipurpose room and two racquetball courts.

The popular Precor machines in the weight room were also recently replaced with brand new machines in order to meet an increase in demand for the equipment.

"With the amount of use those things got - they were going eight to nine hours a day for four years - we definitely got our money's worth." Carswell said.

He added that several of the old Precor machines have been distributed throughout the center in various locations, although several of the old machines had to be pulled due to lack of space.

While these repairs were being made, Carswell and staff focused on training the center's student staff for the upcoming semester.

"What we did during those three days was used them for student training and orientation," he said. "They met with their staffs during that time and covered specific policies and rules. Thursday we trained all student employees in CPR."

Carswell also mentioned that the daily guest pass rate has risen from $5 to $7 this semester. The price hike is the result of both a growing staff at the center as well as the need to offer competitive wages to its employees.

"Over the last period of time, it's cost more and more to do business," he said. "We need to pay our students a little more to keep them around. Most of that revenue increase will enable us to pay our lifeguards and our outdoor trip leaders a more competitive wage."