Rowan's Rec Center: workout wonderland

Lift, run, swim, kick, shoot, swing, swat or stretch.

For 15 years the Student Recreation Center on the north side of campus has been the place to do all that, and more.

Built and funded through student fees, the Rec Center is a three-level, all-season escape hatch that's cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and open for a staggering number of activities and interests.

The 92,000 square-foot facility features two Olympic-size pools (one with low, medium and high-dive boards), a three-court gymnasium, indoor track, large free-weight room and dozens of top-quality exercise machines. There are 42 pieces of cardio equipment, four racquetball courts, and a dedicated spinning room with 16 stationary bikes. There's also a large group exercise room and, scattered about the facility, thick, cushioning mats for stretching and ab work.

Tina Pinocci, Rowan's Assistant Vice President for Campus Recreation, Student Center and Conference Services, said a referendum by students in the 1980s mandated construction of the facility and provided funding for it through student fees.

"For students of a New Jersey school to do something like this 15 years ago was really on the edge," she said. "At the time, student-funded Rec Centers were going up all over the Midwest and Southeast but were really lagging in the Northeast."

She said of the roughly 10,000 students attending Rowan full time, about 3,000 use the center regularly. The Rec Center also has more than 2,000 non-student members whose dues offset student fees.

Organized activities include spinning, pilates, yoga, various cardio classes, strength and endurance, water fitness, ball tone, hip-hop dance, even a triathalon class.

"At one time mostly all you saw were women in exercise classes," said Melanie Alverio-Dorsey, assistant director of the Rec Center. "Nowadays we're seeing more and more men in classes too."

Pinocci said stereotypes about exercise have been crumbling for years, on campus and off.

"We see basketball and football players taking yoga, and many, many more women lifting weights," she said.

On a sweltering Tuesday afternoon in July, the hot, humid weather outdoors gave way to cool comfort inside the Rec Center.

Braving temperatures in the mid-90s and a heat index of more than 100, senior Samantha Knueppel said she came as much for a break from the weather as for her workout.

"My roommate and I will get up early in the summer, come over and use the pool," said Knueppel, 21, a business management major from Jackson. "I also use the indoor track. I don't have air in my apartment so I'll just come over and hang out here."