The Campus Recreation staff has concluded Maintenance Week, during which, the Student Recreation Center was closed to undergo cosmetic changes, a deep clean, and various improvements.
Maintenance Week activities include deep cleaning of fitness areas, fitness equipment, aquatics area, and court floors; installation of new fitness equipment and repair of equipment damaged by general wear and tear; installation of more energy efficient lighting in the aquatics area; and resurfacing of the pool. In addition, the climbing wall floor is receiving an upgrade from carpeting to rubber, increasing its elasticity.
Moreover, Maintenance Week improves the working environment for the staff, as it is an “all hands on deck” effort, involving workers whose jobs do not typically involve maintenance work. “In addition to making a concerted effort to clean and update our facility and equipment, staff who may seldom interact otherwise, get to work side by side, doing tasks that they typically don't do,” said Andy Darling, director, campus recreation. “It's almost as much of a teambuilding payoff as anything else.”
Darling noted that the staff have a strong sense of pride in their facility. “I think that the time spent during our shutdown contributes to that and carries it through the year,” said Darling. “When you've crawled around and detail scrubbed something, your eyes are drawn to it when it gets dirty later on. We're one of the many ‘front doors of campus’ with prospective students and families touring to see what's available to them. We want to make sure what they see is the clean, modern facility that we provide for our campus community.”