Being a part of the Keene State College community gives you access and opportunities to work on not only your fitness, but also your health.
According to the KSC webpage, if you are enrolled in at least three classes you are considered a “full-time” student.
If this is the case, then you have full access to the Recreation Center here on campus. Having “full access”
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gives you a chance to explore your fitness options. You are able to use the fitness center, recreational courts, swimming pool, racquetball courts, all aerobic and fitness classes and the indoor track. Many KSC students come to wonder if all students are taking advantage of what KSC has to offer.
Katie Stewart, Spaulding Gym Facility Manager said, “People utilize the gym a lot during the beginning of the school year and after the new year.”
Stewart said in the first month or two the gym is nearly flooded with at least 30 people in just the weight room at one time. There are seven fitness classes that are available this fall at KSC: Boot camp, Butt, Guts, and More, Cycling, Hydrorobics, Insanity, Yoga and Zumba.
Stewart said, “The fitness classes are a majority of students, with the exceptions of the spin classes where it’s about fifty-fifty students to faculty, whereas Hydrorobics is usually all faculty and staff.”
Fitness classes are held each week at all times of the day from early morning at 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Even though the classes are held at different times, students still have some conflict with fitting them into their schedules.
KSC senior, Cody Fitzgerald, shares a common struggle among all students. “I don’t really have much time to do the classes that they have, but I would like to do yoga. I just don’t know when they are.” Students have all different kinds of work, projects and tests they need to study for.
“Most people are probably too busy to do the classes or even to work out on their own in general. I feel like half the student body knows that we have access to these classes and then a third of that just don’t go to them,” Fitzgerald said.
A random survey that I conducted of 20 KSC students shows that 50 percent of students have gone to or are continuing to go to the fitness classes offered at the gym.
KSC junior, Gabrielle Brzozowski said that she doesn’t have much time to go to the gym.
“Being an athlete and also a student taking five classes is a bit overwhelming. I wake up, go to practice,
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then class, then another practice and by the end of the day I’m either too tired to go to a fitness class or I just have so much homework I have no time to do them,” Brzozowski said.
Schoolwork seems to be the priority for a handful of students. “My parents pay so much money for me to go to school at Keene State. I need to make sure my grades are where they are supposed to be, there just simply [is] not enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do,” Brzozowski said.
Although many KSC students struggle to manage their health and schoolwork, there are still many students who strive to work at both.
Shelby Iava can be contacted at siava@kscequinox.com
