I am proposing to change the opening hours for Sir Tom Finney Sports centre as i believe this will have a positive impact on the mental and physical health of students on campus. Currently the 7 30-10pm weekday opening times are inadequate. I suggest at the very minimum for the centre to be open from 6 30am-12am to accomodate students with various circumstances. I also suggest the same extension on the weekends.
The benefits of extending the gym opening times include:
1.Students who finish lectures late, have work or come back home from placement late have little time to rest, study, and eat adequatley to prepare for a gym session. Extending the time to 12 gives more opportunity for students to exercise.
2. Even if students find time to go to the gym, due to time constraints, the gym is packed with others trying to squeeze in a workout. Therefore most machines are taken which doesn't allow an effective workout. Extending the time allows the traffic to be distributed more evenly, so a better experience for everyone.
3.The courts are often booked out and people struggle to book spots so extending the time gives more booking opportunity and prevents clashes.
4. Having the gym open at 7 30am doesnt give enough time for students with 9/10am lectures to fit in a workout, shower, change and make it to lectures on time. Bringing this back to 6 30 gives opportunity for those who prefer earlier workouts.
5. Extending the weekend opening hours allows students who are unable to attend on the weekdays to have more time to exercise.
6. Exercise increases physical health, decreases stress, improves mental well being and encourages social cohesion, which is incredibly important in a stressful student environment. Exercise has been proven to improve grades so this change will also reflect positively on the University in regards to attainment.
This change should be easy to implement, an extra 3 hours per day of funding for staffing is relatively inexpensive compared to the immense benefit in quality of life. Infact the extra hours would encourage more students to purchase membership which will offset the cost. If struggling to find staff, students can be paid to supervise the extra hours which gives work opportunity to students and weekend jobs
I hope you will consider this proposal and help benefit students both current and in the future.