Can I use that after you?

The movement for a new "Bill of Rights" for student athletes at NCAA institutions like Tufts is only one indication of the rising concern students involved in athletics have in the services and facilities offered by their university. At Tufts, dissatisfaction in athletics extends beyond student-athletes. The lack of adequate facilities at the fitness center, particularly the lack of cardiovascular machines, affects all students who wish to lead a healthier lifestyle by exercising regularly at the gym.

The Tufts Athletics Department needs to address growing demand among students for more equipment and better facilities. For an institution the size of Tufts where a large majority of regular students go to the gym on a regular basis, athletic facilities should fulfill the needs of all students. There is little excuse for the long wait to use machines that currently plagues gym-goers especially at peak times and when Tufts athletic teams reserve blocks of time to use the equipment. When there is a line of up to four people to use a single cardiovascular machine, and each person must be on for at least twenty minutes to half an hour, the wait is both frustrating and at times unfeasible for students on tight class schedules.

In addition, concerns among groups that use indoor facilities besides the gym for physical activity _ such as Jackson dance lab and the Hill Hall aerobics room _ are equally valid, as students in extracurricular performance groups such as Spirit of Color and Tufts Dance Collective, each of which involve up to 300 total members per semester, continue to struggle with the lack of adequate rehearsal space.

Tufts has long prided itself as an institution that promotes healthy living, with a strong history in its Nutrition School and efforts to create healthy meal plans and dining options for students on campus. The University should be proud that so many students want to take advantage of the gym and other facilities, however insufficient they may be. At the same time, these inadequacies should be addressed.

Many may believe that since Tufts is not a Division I school, attention need not be placed on its athletics or the facilities that the school has to offer. However, we cannot ignore that despite the fact that our stands may not constantly be filled with spirited spectators at each and every game, there is still a strong interest in health and fitness among all students.

The University should continue to foster a healthy lifestyle not only in its nutrition programs and academic initiatives, but also in providing adequate athletic facilities for students to carry out that lifestyle. There have been discussions in the past about creating a loft in the gym or finding other ways to squeeze in more machines. For the sake of students' health, a solution should be sought immediately.