Should the SRC be open 24/7?

By Samantha McLean

Abstract:

In this experiment students were asked questions about when they work out, when they have time to workout, and when they prefer to work out. This experiment was done to find out if the SRC’s hours worked out for students. The questions were asked to compile data about when students were free to see when the SRC should be open. In this experiment it was found that most students are free during the evening and prefer to workout then too.  As a result to the findings the SRC should consider staying open a little bit later for students.

Introduction:

As of today the SRC is only open from 630am-11pm Monday through Thursday, 630am-10pm on Fridays, 11am-7pm on Saturdays, and 1pm-9pm on Sundays. Many students here at the University of Louisville love to go to the gym, so the SRC was added to the University’s campus so students could have a free facility to use. Well most students have other obligations besides going to the gym, like work, school, other campus activities, etc. With that when do students have time to use this great facility? That’s why this experiment was done, to show that this facility should be open all the time for students just like a normal gym would be.

This current research could be extended through the whole campus to compile information about the SRC to see when the average student was available. This can then be used to show the University that the SRC should be treated like any other gym and be open and available to students all the time.

Methods:

Participants-

All were currently full time students at the University of Louisville. 1 works full time, 17 work part time, and 16 don’t have a job.

A survey was posted and students were asked to answer a few questions. The first question was, When do they have free time for the gym? Next was, When do they prefer to workout?, Third was Should the SRC be open 24/7? And lastly, If the SRC was open all the time, would you use it more?

Results:

Table 1 shows that most students prefer and have time for the gym later at night. It Also shows that the majority of the students asked agreed with the statement that the SRC should be open 24/7. The average of students who currently have a job was 52.94% and 48.06% do not currently have a job. 20.59% have free time before 5pm and 38.23% prefer to workout before 5pm. Whereas 79.41% have free time after 5pm and 61.77% prefer to workout after 5pm. This suggests that maybe students have classes and work during the day, so they are not able to go to the gym. The findings overall suggest that the majority of students has more time after 5pm to workout and they prefer to workout then too.

Table 1

Participant	Average who currently have a job	Have free time before 5pm	Have free time after 5pm	Prefer to workout before 5pm	Prefer to workout after 5pm	Average amount of students that agree with the statement “the SRC should be open 24/7”
Student	52.94%	20.59%	79.41%	38.23%	61.77%	27.2

Discussion:

This study shows that most students have time and prefer to workout after 5pm.  The majority of the students asked also agreed with the statement “The SRC should be open 24/7.” These findings could be expanded throughout the whole campus to get a better idea of the actual majority of students that would agree with that statement. If this study was to be further expanded the University would probably consider having the gym open longer for the facility to be used to its full potential. The University already makes the SRC out to be like any other gym they have everything a normal gym like planet fitness has, from great locker rooms to having group fitness classes. The University should really consider changing its hours especially for the weekends, because that’s when most of the students have the most time.