Rec Center Reaction Article

Rec Center Reaction: Let the Circuses Begin!

By Jason McGill

Senior, Mass Media major

It wasn’t until I went to the groundbreaking ceremony on April 16 for the University Recreation Center that I finally understood what it was all about.

The ceremony took place on a breezy, cloudy afternoon capping nearly two weeks of the best weather spring had to offer.  A long line of luminaries ascended to the stage to laud the project and thank those who needed thanks.  Student Government Association thanked the administration, the administration thanked the students, and everyone thanked the donors.  President Nietzel took some time to recognize the close, “special” relationship between SGA and the administration.  They are close.  Very close.  Very very close.

And I felt like a killjoy.  There were actual storm clouds looming over the stage, rushing toward us on ever stronger gusts of wind.  Seeing the storm on the horizon, I couldn’t help but think of the budget cuts and tuition hikes afflicting many other state schools, cuts we’ve been asked to prepare for, cuts that must inevitably come.  Why doesn’t preparedness extend to making some sober decisions about how our economic outlook has changed since 2006, when the Rec Center project got underway?

Many justifications were given at the groundbreaking for the Rec Center.  These arguments centered on the three main points President Nietzel described in his time at the podium.  The first was promotion of wellness.  Andrew Garton, Student Co-chair of the Rec Center task force, observed MSU had been named fourteenth fattest campus in the nation in 2005. 

I wonder what criteria were used to compile the study, and whether “lack of giant new recreation center” was the primary reason for our low score.  I suspect the study looked at a whole host of factors, diet and exercise habits of students probably being chief among them. 

Wellness depends on the many choices each individual makes every day.  All the Rec Centers in the world won’t help people who are already finding ways to avoid exercise.  Fancy machines or new facilities aren’t necessary to improve health.  Since when does cardio require more than a sidewalk?  Since when does strength training require more than gravity?  The key element in physical fitness is the will to work on it.

President Nietzel and others also were proud to tout the building’s “green” certification.  I, for one, am skeptical of any building on campus certified “green” when they can’t even certify Craig Hall as “leak free.”

This “green” certification is part of this myth that we need to buy our way into environmental responsibility.  It’s often more efficient to repurpose or refurbish old buildings rather than consume resources to construct, maintain, and run utilities in a new “green” building.  Remember the old slogan, “reduce, reuse, recycle”?

Finally, President Nietzel said the Rec Center represents the University’s fulfillment of its commitment to students.  Many speakers emphasized the Rec Center providing much needed space for socializing.  Really?  SGA and the administration looked around and said, “There aren’t enough places for students to hang out”?

I’m the first one to admit, while students are spirited in their own activities and interests, campus spirit is lacking in general.  Witness the low attendance at sports games, or the low attendance, not only at the rally against the Rec Center, but also the groundbreaking for the Rec Center.  But is lack of structures really the issue?  Somehow, I don’t think so.

So I’m thinking all this during these speeches, looking at the artist’s rendering of the Rec Center above the stage, and it occurs to me the thing looks sort of like an amusement park.  Then it all started falling into place.  The Rec Center’s basically a playground, a waterslide, a new toy.  Ironically, the Rec Center’s a bit like picking up that chocolate bar in the grocery checkout line.  You know you shouldn’t, but it’s fun.  What’s so bad about feeling good?

What is thirty million dollars, anyway?  Students would never vote for a fee for boring things like hiring teachers or creating scholarships.  Did you know the Rec Center will have a zip line?  Hooray!  Donors can’t brag about fixing leaky pipes or ridding buildings of mold.  They want to put plaques in the Rec Center lounge.  Did you know the lounge will be decked out with dozens of flat panel televisions?  Now that’s green!

People criticize the Romans because, at the height of the empire, they spent almost half the year celebrating holidays.  As the shovels hit the dirt for the Rec Center groundbreaking, and the band played our fight song, I shrugged and thought, “When in Rome, do as the Roman’s do.”  Life is too short to always be prudently planning for the future. 

To end the groundbreaking ceremony, they released hundreds of maroon and white balloons.  The wind picked up and tipped over the American flag on the stage, knocking it into the podium.  The gusts pushed the balloons away from the stage and hard into Freddy.  Several balloons were caught in the tree out front.  I turned my back on the stage and its canopy of storm clouds to watch the balloons sail off into a bright blue patch of sky.  That’s when I realized the lesson in all this; maybe the best way to deal with an impending storm is to just look the other way.  Let the circuses begin!