This fall, Tufts opened the much-anticipated Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center. This three-story, 42,000-square-foot building hosts new locker rooms, team meeting rooms, a spinning room/yoga studio and an 80-person screening room. In addition, the center is in the process of being equipped with new exercise machines.
The new fitness center has received rave reviews so far from varsity athletes, but at least 233 non-varsity-athlete community members are unsatisfied with the amount of space in which they can now work out, according to a petition authored by alumnus Nathan Ricci (LA '08). In the past, non-varsity athletes split access to Lunder Fitness Center in Cousens Gymnasium with varsity athletes, with certain times reserved as "Varsity Only."
The Daily finds the reports of overcrowding in the new fitness center from students and alumni alike alarming. The administration touted the accessibility of the new space when its construction was announced, yet over 200 members of the Tufts community have expressed a desire for more space to exercise and for access to more free weights and squat racks.
Since the new gym's 8,500 square feet of space makes it larger than the gym in Cousens, we are especially concerned by these complaints, which are likely the result of kinks still needing to be worked out with the new facility, which to its credit provides its users with far more cardio equipment than the former space in Cousens.
Personnel at the new fitness center have urged students to have patience, as all of the new equipment has not yet been installed. But the Tufts community shouldn't need to have more patience after already waiting decades for this new facility to exist. Until the new fitness center works out its kinks, the Daily believes that the Athletic Department should allot a few hours every day when the formerly free-to-use space in Cousens is unlocked and open for use to the whole Tufts community.
