Ferris Athletic Center desperately needs a face-lift

MICHAEL MARDOIAN `18

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Trinity College continues to construct and remodel buildings all over campus. All of the improvements continue to enhance the on-campus living experience.
That being said, one facility that continues to be overlooked is Ferris Athletic Center. There are many people who go to the gym on a regular basis to stay in shape, reduce stress, and generally feel good. Unfortunately, our gym is extremely outdated. It lacks new and improved machines and equipment. And, much of what it does have is either in very poor condition or broken altogether. Observing all of the construction around campus, I cannot help but wonder why there is a lack of funding and lack of initiative towards improving Ferris.
The non-varsity gym is probably in the worst shape of all. The benches are ripped and torn from years of daily use. Some of the cables on the lateral pull-down machines in the back snapped over a year ago and are still yet to be repaired. Nearly half of the plates are rusted through. There never seem to be enough smaller dumbbells, either. The decline leg press has not worked for over two years, and lastly, the mats up the stairs, where most people work on their abs, are torn up and from my experience, rarely cleaned.
Other students are clearly upset about the subpar facilities as well. “The management really needs to step up their game however and pay attention to the students and improve the less then adequate gym that we currently have at Ferris Athletic Center,” Karan Khurana ’17 said of the buliding.
Sebastien Broustra ’17 agreed, saying, “because I eat a lot of tacos, I feel the need to workout every now and then, and Ferris is not my cup of tea.” People have been looking for changes, yet nothing seems to get done.
Even though the gym is outdated, a very large amount of the student body still uses it and can manage to get a decent workout in. Although the treadmills, bikes and ellipticals are old, most are still functioning so students can use them without too much grief.
Not all aspects of Ferris are bad however. “We do have some really nice facilities at Ferris, including world class squash courts and nice basketball courts,” said Khurana added. She makes use of these resources as a recreational squash player. Another one of Ferris’ few bright spots came from Mia Olsen ’17, an impressive starter on Trinity College’s field hockey team. “The athletic trainers are incredible. They are there to help you every step of the way and really care about the students,” Olsen said.
There are things that could be done in the short term to make going to Ferris a more enjoyable experience, especially those students who are not members of a varsity team, and therefore do not have access to the better resources available in the gym.
For example, it would be very easy to replace some of the old torn benches and mats and get new sets of plates and dumbbells.
In the longer term however, there need to be some major renovations done to keep up with the times. I do not think that it is too unreasonable to request a modern gym with decent equipment that actually works. The administration has swept Ferris under the rug for far too long.