With warm weather still lingering, students who work out in Keene State College’s Spaulding Gymnasium have not yet swapped shorts for sweats.
In recent weeks a sign was posted on the door and on the entrance podium to remind students to dress appropriately while working out inside the gym.
Some students took this sign as a new policy or rule, when really it’s been a policy since 2002. However, starting a new year with new students, many need to be reminded of what they can and cannot wear while working out, to make sure all people in the gym feel comfortable.
Director of Recreational Sports Lynne Andrews explained, “It’s a very public building. Tours come in here, parents, small children so we just want to make sure that the gym has a very professional appearance.”
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Besides appearance reasons, wearing a T-shirt also provides a hygienic reason to dress more appropriately at the gym. Most people who use machines and equipment aren’t usually that consistent with cleaning the equipment, so wearing a t-shirt provides “one more barrier,” Andrews said.
Freshman Ellie Cook said, “It’s just common sense [to wear appropriate clothing in the gym].”
However, there are some grey areas about what is and what isn’t accepted. For example, many female students said they believed that they were no longer allowed to wear “crop top” workout attire in the gym, but Andrews explained what she considers to be acceptable.
“For me, it’s more the yoga style of clothing. Like the yoga tank tops that have smaller straps but still cover the bulk of the body. If it’s not just a straight-cut sports bra and if there’s more material then it’s probably going to be fine,” Andrews said.
Another grey area is recreational basketball and how men can play a shirts-versus-skins game. “For basketball, shirts-versus-skins is probably the only area where we are still debating on enforcing the policy or not because traditionally, that is the way pick-up basketball is played,” Andrews said, “They don’t usually have pinnies or the same shirt to wear, it’s just the nature of that sport.”
Matt Brown, a junior at KSC, said the only time he sees men without shirts in the gym is when he plays basketball. However, he did not agree that men should be allowed to work out without proper clothing. “I would honestly feel really uncomfortable if a guy was to work out next to me without his shirt on,” Brown said. However, students aren’t the only ones who use the gym.
“This is a facility where there’s teachers and coaches are in and out all the time … I think you just have to be wearing a shirt at all times so everyone feels comfortable,” Jill Marlowe, a staff member said.
Marlowe continued, “If I approach someone who’s wearing something inappropriate I’m never mean about it. I’ll just say something like, ‘Do you think you could put a t-shirt on or wear a shirt next time.’”
Students are not the only ones who have to abide by these rules, athletic teams have practice uniforms that aren’t necessarily a t-shirt and shorts. However, they do have to wear the appropriate clothing while inside the public areas of the gym. “Swimmers aren’t allowed to walk around in [the] weight room or rec gym in a bathing suit to do dry land training. They must have shirts and shoes and proper work out attire, but obviously in the pool bathing suits are acceptable,” Andrews said. She continued to explain that most teams like basketball and volleyball have specific practice gear.
“We can’t dictate what the practice uniforms are, that’s the coaches’ decision,” Andrews said.
Although most students are unaware of the policy, at the beginning of the year the sign was just a simple reminder to reinforce the shirts and shoes policy.
Kendall Pope can be contacted at kpope@keene-equinox.com
