Running to get Machines Fixed

Finding time to go to the gym in college is a struggle, but getting there to find broken machines is an even bigger struggle. At the Pratt Recreation Center, two treadmills and two elipticals were broken. The first treadmill broke months ago and it has been a chain reaction since. Because there are only 24 machines, seven of those being treadmills and the other 17 of being ellipticals, having four broken machines makes exercising difficult for students.

According to Martin Guillet, the associate director of Pratt, “there have been some more significant issues with these machines.” Guillet is normally able to fix these machines on his own, but the machines currently require more electrical and mechanical work.

The machines also require new parts to be ordered. “We needed to order parts and the parts have taken weeks to come in,” Guillet said. When the repair service came in to fix the machines on March 2, the parts that were ordered were incorrect. The repair service “will be in tomorrow [March 2] to repair most of the machines,” Guillet said. As of March 7, when the machines were supposed to be repaired, out of order signs were still placed on the machines.

The broken machines at Pratt have upset several students on campus. Students consistently feel like they are in competition to get on a machine, so with fewer machines, the competition is greater. “The gym is very limited and students who are going to use it for their own personal reasons have to compete with the athletes who have to warm up while they wait for their coaches,” Kaitlyn Veygel, a senior broadcasting major, said. “I feel like I’m entering the Hunger Games every time I go to the gym; when equipment is broken it is even a bigger struggle because there is an even higher competition to get on the equipment that is working,” she added.

Other students don’t have a lot of time to work out, so they feel that it is a hassle if a machine that they need is taken because they either wait or have to change their workout plan. “I wish the ellipticals and especially the treadmills would be repaired sooner [rather] than later. I don’t have a lot of time to work out and the only convenient time is during common hour, so now it’s first come, first serve,” Myles Goldman, a junior forensic science major, said.

As of March 21, one of the treadmills and the two ellipticals were fixed, but an additional elliptical is broken.