Students, faculty complain about lack of weight room cleanliness

By Dan Robinson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Norwich University senior Brent Warren likes nothing more then to spend a relaxing time down in the newly redone weight room, located in the lower floor of Plumley Armory. The 20-year-old criminal justice major from Alexander, Va., has been very impressed with the new equipment that was purchased at the beginning of the year for the enjoyment of the student body.

Unfortunately there are several questions that have been raised in recent examinations of the facilities. One such problem that has come up is accumulation of salt build-up on the weights and equipment, which is brought in on the shoes of gym-goers who have traveled through the snow to come work out.

"One of our major problems right now that we have is the winter mud, salt, and sand coming from people's shoes from the outside," said Rich Hasenfus, the Norwich University wrestling coach, who is in charge of the weight room. "People are bringing the dirt into the weight room, into the stair masters and on the bikes, but mostly into the weight room."

According to Hasenfus, the salt sticks to the rubber flooring, and it goes in the wood floors, and it is slowly beginning to ruin the equipment. Hasenfus is unable to keep up with the buildup or with how many people come in and out of the weight room on a daily basis.

"The equipment we have is basically indestructible, and it doesn't need much maintenance," Hasenfus said. "The stairmasters and treadmills are taking a beating, because all that sand and salt is going in the motors."

"People just jump in with their shoes and the mud, and they're wet, and they go on the treadmill," Hasenfus said. "All you have to do is look at the rug behind the treadmill and you will see all the dirt from people's shoes."

"The facilities in the weight room are very nice, and people coming in with the salt on their shoes are damaging the equipment," said Matthew Ranani, 19, a sophomore criminal justice major from Montkisco, N.Y. "It just rips away at the floor and the equipment, like the treadmills, the wooden platforms, and all that kind of stuff."

According to Hasenfus, during the summer months it's really not an issue, but it would still be good to enforce that policy of changing one's shoes. They can't keep up with the maintenance, the weight room can't get washed, vacuumed, and the floor swept every day. It would need to be twice a day to even come close to keeping up with it, and they don't have the manpower.

"It's really the student body's responsibility to make sure that when they come in they take their shoes off and they put another pair on," Hasenfus said. "It's posted on the glass, that you must not wear your shoes you wore outside in here, but most people don't follow it."

Although there are several hints that do show remnants of the salt covering the equipment with its white rings all over them, there are people that use the weight room almost every single day that say it's not as bad as one might think.

"I think that most of the damage doesn't come from the salt or mud; it comes from the people's improper usage with most of the cardio equipment," Warren said. "A lot of the people that get on there that I see, they just go to town on it without knowing how to use it properly."

According to Warren, the people that he sees go down to the weight room, whether they are wearing wet, salty shoes or not, a lot of them use it well. That's why the university has such a nice weight room right now, and it will continue to be a nice weight room.

"Most of the people aren't down there for a real purpose, other than they maybe come down once a week," Warren said. "They abuse the equipment and leave."

With many differences aside, there is still the question of whether or not there is actual damage being done to the new equipment, and if so, how much of it has been done so far.

"It's 10,000 dollars apiece, I believe, for the power clean equipment," Hasenfus said. "You're looking at 60,000 dollars that if we keep at the pace we're going will be ruined by the end of the year."

"It's a major problem right now," said Kareem Fernandez, 19, a junior criminal justice major from Handover, Md. "[If] whoever is in charge believes that it's a major problem, then maybe they should have someone in charge of cleaning it more often."

According to Hasenfus, all that dirt and salt will look clean for 10 minutes or so after one mops it up, and then it dries and it looks like it wasn't even touched with a cleaning product. Also, the same can be said for what happens to the wood, and the rubber parts around the wood.

"I don't think that people should be wearing slick shoes, with rain, mud or snow, or anything on the platforms because it's such slick wood," Warren said. "They pose more of a problem to themselves if they do that."

"We are doing the best we can with the resources we have, and that's not good enough right now," Hasenfus said. "What we have to have happen is the individuals and student body has to take responsibility, and help out by not adding to the problem."

"If people would just start policing their own, and taking care of other people that don't know how to use stuff," Warren said. "Unless you have a full-time work-study person down there to say, don't do that."

According to Hasenfus, they have work-study personnel going around cleaning stuff, but it's very hard to have one student telling another student that they need to change up their shoes before they may enter the weight room, making it extremely hard to enforce such a policy.

"I think that we are on the right step, and we were going to get a slide card system and have an adult monitor," Hasenfus said. "You have to actually ask every single person that walks by during the winter months."

According to Warren, the university and the weight room will always have the problem.
"You're always going to have the same problem, no one's going to stop doing it until they are made to stop doing it."

"This year they have made a conscious effort in stopping people from using equipment with dirty shoes," Warren said. "I have still seen some people, even faculty members, with the shoes that they are wearing outside; it's just irresponsible usage."

"If they do that, then we can somewhat combat the problem, and deal with it," Hasenfus said. "If they don't we will continue on the same pace, and we will be back to where we were years ago, where everything was ruined."

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