Since school started, I’ve been using the UALR gym. There are aerobics classes, but none of them are at a time that I can take one. The pool isn’t open until 11:00 am (also not fitting into my schedule) and they are seriously lacking in free weights. BUT, as early as I go, there’s hardly anybody in there and I basically get run of the place…so that’s good. When I was going to Jim Dailey (a part of Arkansas Parks and Recreation, meaning it’s state funded) it was generally busy. I never really had to wait around for machines or anything, but there were usually a good amount of people in there. They also had enough money to have actual trainers and people walking around to keep an eye on equipment or tell patrons when they were f’ing some exercise up.
The UALR gym doesn’t have the luxury of proper “supervision.” The workers are generally students who’s only job is to sit at the front door to swipe your card and make sure you’re a student. At Jim Dailey, if a machine broke, there would be someone from the manufacturer out to fix it within a day or two. At the UALR gym, they don’t really care if things break. They put a sign on it and it stays broken for the rest of the semester.
But, you say, “They’re both state funded. UALR has money to do good things with their gym.” Actually, they do not. I’m thinking parks and recreation have a good sized budget, plus with the monthly (or dailey, whichever you choose to do) memberships, they consistently have money coming in. UALR doesn’t focus on fitness/health. It’s a place for upper level education. True, there is a fee wrapped in with your tuition for the student center, but from the looks of things, it used to pay for all the new restaurants in the DSC.
It makes me happy to see the state promoting health in so much that they allocate money directly to a quality gym. …is the Jim Dailey Fitness and Aquatic Center paying me to promote them so much??? No, no they’re not.
