The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
Most shifts are the same for many of the staff members at the Strength Fitness Center, but the process of making it a comfortable and clean area to workout keeps their focus sharp.
The Strength Fitness Center is open to both the community and students with the purchase of a membership. The staff consists of current students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and gives them a chance to work and gain experience in the process.
“Work-study attracted me to this job when I was a freshman, and I enjoy the laid back, but professional atmosphere this place brings more than anything,” said Logan Taylor, junior Strength Fitness Center employee.
Although the normal shifts assigned to the workers are not long, they require your utmost attention while you are there.
The staff is required to complete a variety of tasks including cleaning, swiping student ID cards when they check in, interacting with the members if they need assistance and putting the weight room back together at the end of their shift.
“This past year we’ve started taking head counts of the people in here at certain times so we know that if a certain time is busier than others we have the right amount of people in here to handle that,” Taylor said.
Not only does having the right amount of people in the weight room at given times matter, but the staff having the right attitude towards members makes the fitness center a healthy fitness environment.
“There’s always at least one person here and they’re always pretty friendly about giving us or anybody a hand when they need one,” said Riley Wood, freshman Strength Fitness Center member.
With a variety of different fitness options in the area including Anytime Fitness and the YMCA, the campus fitness center has made it a priority to make a mark on their student members so they stick around.
“They do a nice job of keeping the machines clean and operating, they have basically every machine we need and they’re all pretty new so that’s nice,” said Steven Collins, freshman Strength Fitness Center member.
The weight room is shared by our student-athletes as well as our general student body. Despite what would seem to be a crammed weight room at all times, the staff makes sure everybody gets their fair share of time.
“A lot of times the athletic teams will be in here early morning and a little bit in the afternoon, whereas the student who isn’t an athlete will normally come in during the night so it is a good flow of people most of the day,” Taylor said.
Many universities have a separate weight room for their athletes, but the staff at UWSP do not believe that is always necessary.
“We don’t have much problems with space most of the time, like I said, sometimes it gets a little crammed, but people are normally pretty good with working around each other,” Taylor said.
Each employee is asked to do a few two hour shifts per week, and their tasks may vary during those shifts.
“Our shifts are normally about two hours long. Most of the times we do the stuff usually asked of us, some shifts include just a short cleaning stint of the weight room, it varies,” Taylor said.
With the day by day tasks set in stone for the time being, the ability to try and make the Strength Fitness Center a better place based off what the staff sees maximizes the center’s use.
“We’re all asked for suggestions if we have any,” Taylor said. “If it’s a good suggestion it is normally worked very hard to achieve. I think this place is run very professionally.”
That type of professional environment is what keeps the student’s who begin their college careers as members, continue to be members.
“I come here almost every day of the week, it is close and convenient for me and I like the atmosphere of the room, I would suggest this to be the spot for students to work out for sure,” Wood said.
Charles Klumb
Reporter
cklum166@uwsp.edu
