By Annika Wickham

SUNY Oswego will not charge students to use the on-campus fitness centers for the spring 2022 semester, according to a Feb. 7 email from Officer in Charge Dr. Mary C. Toale.

“We are thrilled to announce students’ no membership fee access to SUNY Oswego’s fitness centers for spring 2022 as the first use of the HEERF (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund) Mental Health and Wellness funds,” the email stated.

SUNY Oswego has two fitness centers on-campus, Cooper and Glimmerglass. To use either facility is typically $65 per semester or $130 for the academic year. Brian Wallace, director of fitness and recreation at SUNY Oswego, said there had been talk about ways to make the gyms no cost to students because the fee discourages some from going. 

“The free access to the fitness centers came up in discussion because we know exercise has a strong connection to positive mental health,” Wallace said. “We’ve always felt there is an issue with the membership fee, maybe limiting access for students.”

Waiving the membership fee “seemed to be like an easy, low hanging fruit,” according Wallace, because there is always an influx of interested students in the spring semester. 

“[In the] spring semester, I think a lot more students are interested in fitness,” Wallace said. “There’s the New Year’s [resolutions] and everybody kind of has this model of ‘oh it’s time to recommit myself to health.’”

Wallace is a member of a committee dedicated to deciding how to use the HEERF in the best possible way for students. He said the committee did discuss potential concerns about an increase in the number of students using the fitness centers but he is not worried about overcrowding. 

“There might be times when we are at decent capacity,” Wallace said. “But there’s just less students on campus than we had five years ago. I think the space would be able to handle it, but it’s still an unknown.”

Suzanne Brach, a personal trainer, agreed with Wallace that there might be an increase in use of the centers in the weeks following the announcement, but numbers will not stay that high. 

“I expect for the first few weeks people will go, just like at the beginning of every semester the motivation of going to the gym or working out is really high, but then as the semester goes on it will level out,” Brach said. 

Wallace said “the entire staff” supported the decision before it was finalized, as they learned it was a possibility during a meeting before classes started, and were “excited” for it to be implemented. 

“I was happy [fitness center memberships] were finally free,” Brach said. “I remember that was a downside of picking Oswego because a lot of other colleges have their fitness centers free. I had to become a staff member just to have a free gym.”

The committee wanted to use the HEERF funds in a way that would have “an immediate impact” for students, according to Wallace, and discussions on ways to limit or waive the membership fee were already happening before the grant money became available. 

The funding that is being used to cover fitness center costs is part of the HEERF grant that is specifically for mental health, so students will not be missing other COVID-19 related refunds in lieu of free fitness center memberships. 

“From a mental health side, I think a lot of students, from my perspective, use exercise as a way to manage stress, anxiety and depression,” Wallace said. “It’s a coping mechanism and it’s [a] positive coping mechanism.”

This semester is being used as a trial, according to Wallace, to see how many students take advantage of the fitness centers and its programs. 

“We are trying to figure out that next step,” Wallace said. “We were already in discussions about rolling this out next semester anyway.”

All students now have access to all aspects of fitness centers, including group classes and personal training. Wallace said he is interested to see if there is more attendance for the group classes because there is more of a “drop-in” option. 

The fitness centers are currently hiring group exercise instructors for the 2022-2023 academic year, according to Brach, as most of the staff is graduating this semester. For more information about the position and the fitness centers, visit Fitness Centers | Fitness Centers (oswego.edu).

Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian