Working Out the Problems of Columbia’s Gyms

As the daughter of two hardworking parents, I learned early that money is not an object. It is for things you need and only occasionally for things you want. For me, it is just as important to be physically fit and strong as it is to be well-nourished with a roof over my head. Two years ago, I decided to put my hard-earned money toward membership at a NYC gym, not because I wanted to mingle with Upper West Side JAPs, but rather because Columbia’s gym facilities—Dodge and the tiny room in the basement of Barnard Hall labeled “gym”—did not meet my physical needs.

Though Dodge administrators boast that Columbia’s gym is bigger than those of most other colleges, they fail to take into account the facility’s overwhelming number of members. Along with CC, SEAS, Barnard, and graduate students, faculty members, alumni, and members of the community all have access to the facility. When the number of people frequenting the gym is in the thousands, it is wishful thinking to believe that just two floors of cardio equipment and weight rooms will suffice. I remember many occasions my freshman year when I woke up early before class to sign up for a slot on the Arc Trainer—a popular cardio machine of which Columbia owned only two (now four) only to find all of them taken. Because of the policy that people can only sign up one hour in advance, I had to cross my fingers that I’d have a slot if I came back after my classes were through. Though it would have been easy to ask a friend to write down my name on the sign-up sheet, another inane policy prevented me from doing so. Since I knew that my only chance of getting a slot fitting my schedule would be by going early in the morning (I got in at the crack of dawn by lying that I was a varsity athlete) or late at night, I spent most of freshman year feeling half-awake and weak rather than alert and strong.

Even when I was able to exercise at a reasonable hour, my workouts were far from ideal. While Dodge is a million-dollar facility, its equipment is from a different era (think Olivia Newton-John in “Physical”) and often fails to function properly. Even though I occasionally saw maintenance people tinker with the cardio equipment, the treadmill squeaked when I ran past eight mph, and the Arc Trainer and elliptical machines had barely any resistance on settings that should have made Ms. Olympia cry out in pain. Moreover, though 30 minutes is a satisfying amount of time for most people, it is insufficient for those who want to practice endurance. Thus, while I could make my workouts harder by varying my speed and intensity, I was never able to “go the extra mile” in the literal or figurative sense of the expression. I had even less time to get in a hearty sweat when the person in the slot before me—almost always the older woman who goes negative two miles an hour while reading a magazine and holding onto the handle bars—refused to get off the machine during my time.

The reason I never went to Barnard’s gym orientation (a requirement to use the facility—I guess Dodge administrators don’t care if you know how to use the equipment) was that it would have been an even greater waste of time. Even if the Barnard gym were open (which with random hours it rarely is) and I could get a slot on the limited cardio equipment—two or three treadmills, Arc trainers, elliptical machines and stationary bikes—I would only have 20 minutes to exercise. Though doctors say that’s better than nothing, for my friend, a varsity crew athlete, this short amount of time really is nothing—hence why she spent most of last year sneaking into the gym at East Campus. Barnard’s weight “area” (it can’t be considered a room as it is within the same tiny square footage that is Barnard’s gym) is also limited, consisting of outdated and/or broken machines and some rusty free weights.

While I am fortunate enough to go to another gym, not everyone has this option. Though Dodge administrators created a suggestion box two years ago, they have hardly acted on any students’ requests. Even if Columbia were not a well-funded institution—which, with an endowment of $5.9 billion, it is—it would not take a lot of money, time, or effort to improve its gymnasium. If the college is not willing to accommodate our physical needs by updating equipment and creating a better sign-up system (perhaps by eliminating the ineffective sign-ups all together), then the gym itself will have to limit membership or charge higher fees—moves that will surely be met with contempt.

The author is a Barnard College junior majoring in English.