A group of 67 alumni and older users of the Dodge Fitness Center have signed a petition, complaining that they are given low priority for use of the facilities and that their appointments times are consistently dishonored.
Sheldon Sunness, a GSAS alum, said that despite their memberships to the gym, many alumni have been repeatedly moved or kicked out of their designated areas. The petition, which “demand[s] an end to the sloppy, inconsiderate scheduling policies,” calls on the University to better coordinate and balance schedules between undergraduates, alumni, and outside users of the gym.
Erich Ely, associate athletics director for facilities of Dodge, said that due to limited facilities, everyone cannot always be accommodated.
“We would love to be able to accommodate all of our stakeholders at all times, however that is not always possible,” Ely said in an email.
However, Sunness said he thinks the administration should be able to work out scheduling issues. “The point is that we feel that these people are like traffic cops who don’t want to work rush hour,” Sunness said. “You or I can go into the street at 4 a.m. and direct traffic. The point of the traffic cop is to direct congestion.”
He said that his group’s standing appointment every Saturday morning on the basketball courts was canceled 11 consecutive times because of other activities that were taking place, including those by groups that are not officially part of the University.
Ely said that Dodge was originally designed as an athletics center for a single-gender undergraduate college. Today, Dodge is the primary recreation center for the four undergraduate schools on campus, and Ely said it accommodates 31 varsity sports teams, 38 club sports programs, more than 40 intramural competitions, and hundreds of physical education classes.
Nate Rawlings, a student at SIPA, said it can feel cramped in Dodge at times.
“It’s been hard for a lot of us to use the facilities at Dodge. For a university gym, it’s really small,” Rawlings said. “It’s a really antiquated facility and unless they would expand it, it would be hard to give memberships to others, unless it helped Columbia financially.”
Ali Salas, BC ’13, said Columbia should make it easy for members of the community to use the gym.
“Columbia could be doing more to engage the community by giving others access to the gym,” Salas said. “Also, if you went here, [as an alum] you should be able to continue reaping the benefits of this institution. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that.”
Ely and Sunness have met to discuss scheduling issues before, but they haven’t reached an agreement yet.
“Should a schedule change be necessary due to physical education classes, intramural programs, intercollegiate athletics, special events, or inclement weather, revised schedules are posted immediately in the Dodge Fitness Center at various locations and on the website,” Ely said.
However, Sunness said that these changes aren’t updated as promised. He explained that along with being displaced from certain areas due to these changes, schedules don’t always show canceled events, leaving spaces unnecessarily unused.
Alexei Krylov, a student from the Columbia Business School, said he thinks undergraduate programs receive unfair preference at Dodge. He said he is upset that at times during the day, the courts are all occupied by PE classes. “I had a couple of discussions with the coach,” Krylov said. “He won’t even attempt to compromise.”
Krylov said that living off campus gives him limited time to come to Dodge, adding that he only asks one or two of the 10 courts remain available for other members. “I pay as much for this membership as they do,” said Krylov. “I don’t understand the priority.”
Karla Jimenez contributed reporting.
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