Maddi O’Neill
Staff Writer
As students may have noticed, the Scot Center’s fitness center and pool hours were recently reduced. The gym is now only open until 10 p.m., and the pool is now open between noon and 2 p.m. for faculty use and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for everyone. Student workers in the Scot Center are also facing additional cuts to their hours, with 6 to 10 a.m. being reduced to swipe access hours. Furthermore, during the swipe access period, no student staff is posted at the desk in the gym.
Athletic Director Dr. Keith Beckett, said that the cuts were made to avoid the risk of exceeding the Scot Center’s student employment budget. “It is imperative that department budgets do not exceed limits,” Beckett said. “Consequently we were given the charge to explore methods to ensure that the total student worker budget did not exceed the limit available.”
In order to cut costs, the Scot Center is now closing earlier and will be shutting its doors at 10 p.m. instead of midnight. Eric Petry ’14, a student worker in the Scot Center, said, “Closing the Scot Center at 10 p.m. is problematic because I feel that many students use that time to work out.” Kathleen Hogg ’16, a student who frequents the gym late at night, and said, “I think for a lot of students going to the gym earlier [than 10 p.m.] just isn’t possible so I think the cut is going to have a negative effect on student health.”
Scot Center student workers are now left with fewer hours and consequently less income. Petry has lost an hour of his morning shift because of the new swipe access hours. “[This] is obviously frustrating because it means less income each week…but I guess I support the decision because it does not mean the Center is open less during the week.”
Beckett, defending the cuts to hours, said, “The reductions, although not significant, will have [a] certain impact on those that held positions during time periods that have been modified. It should however be mentioned that none of our student worker positions carry an hourly guarantee.”
The cuts are scheduled to remain in place until the end of the school year. Looking into next year, Beckett said that the physical education Department has requested a budget that will allow for the gym and student workers’ hours to be maintained throughout the year.
“Now that we have tracked the student worker budget for a full year with the Scot Center positions added and we have a more concrete idea on the multiplicity of events that take place,” Beckett said.
“They cut hours last year as well,” said Adriana Hoak ’14, a lifeguard at the pool and member of the swim team. “We [the pool staff] went in last January and only two hours were available in the swimming office versus the several we had in the year before. People were constantly fighting for those few hours, seeing as before there were more available.” Hoak said that, with the latest cuts, very few lifeguards have been allowed to maintain their hours and lost a portion of their income.
According to Beckett this recurring budget shortfall will be resolved after this fiscal year, once the Physical Education department has had a better chance to evaluate how much money is necessary to maintain student jobs in the Scot Center, taken this year’s budget into account and is better able to foresee and prevent these new budget problems.