Letter to the Editor

"The horror, the horror.: the Schuldes Athletic Center"Saint Norbert College will always state that the "student" comes first in "student-athlete," and rightfully so. The athletes that participate in intercollegiate athletics in Saint Norbert strive to attain superior grades; about one in every three SNC student athletes has received Academic All-Conference awards for their hard work and dedication. Saint Norbert College has been to the home to 40 Academic All-Americans, the most of any Midwest Conference school. It is clearly evident that student-athletes at SNC are being constantly rewarded for being good students, yet they have not gained the same rewards for being student athletes.

The goals of creating a new athletic facility for SNC athletes include, instilled pride into the school community, increase the importance of athletics in the SNC tradition, enhance the physical well-being of the college community, and to recruit higher quality athletes. Saint Norbert College does not seem to have a lot of pride in its athletics-increasing the pride that the college has in its athletics is something that should start taking place immediately. Athletes at SNC have been given various rewards (new library, dorms) and accolades (Academic All-Conference) for being superior students, but they still have not been rewarded for being superior athletes-with a new athletic facility. SNC has many successful and competitive athletic teams (football, hockey, basketball), and many superior athletes (Ashley Graybill). But these teams and athletes still have to suffer in dilapidated and outdated sports facilities-the dreaded Schuldes Sports Center. In the modern world, there are many diseases associated with living a sedentary life: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. A new athletic facility would aid the college community in its efforts to life a healthy and active life. Each year, the school loses many higher-quality athletes to other school because of its horrible athletic facilities. Student-athletes interested in participating in intercollegiate athletics not going to be motivated to play at a college that has a new library-they would be more likely be interested in a college that has just built a brand new athletic center.

The Schuldes weight room is atrocious. It is very undersized-when many athletes attempt to exercise at the same time, it can become very crowded and the wait time for equipment usage is drastically increased. Student-athletes should not have to sacrifice one of their most precious resources-time. Along with being crowded, males tend to dominate the weight room in Schuldes; this creates an atmosphere that can make some female athletes and students uncomfortable and unwilling to exercise in Schuldes. If there was a new weight room in the athletic center, the weight room within Schuldes would be able to be renovated and used predominately as a physical education center for mostly SNC non-athletes (and therefore, more females would feel comfortable using the equipment-they should not have to forfeit such wonderful resources).

The Schuldes weight room has downright the worst equipment of any school in the Midwest Conference. I have personally seen most of the other facilities of the remaining schools in the MWC, and they all trump the weight room located in Schuldes. Many essential pieces of exercise equipment are absent from the Schuldes weight room: smith machine, calf-raise machines, decline benches, dual cable machines, pec-deck machine, etc. Many of the "better" pieces of equipment in the weight room are quite honestly just hand-me-downs from the Green Bay Packers. Almost every dumbbell in the weight room is bent and/or rusted. This is not the direct fault of any group of individuals-when one is performing a heavy set, the safest way to put the dumbbells down might be to drop them (but others still drop dumbbells on the ground for no apparent reason). Other schools in the MWC have complete sets of rubberized dumbbells that range from 5lbs. to 150lbs. (the dumbbell set in the weight room is missing dumbbells, and only goes as high as 110lbs.). Most of the weight plates in the weight room are rusted, and there are also not nearly enough Olympic weight plates for all athletes to use. The Schuldes weight room has less than half-a-dozen pieces of cardio equipment within its walls, while other schools have multiple pieces of cardio equipment within their athletic facilities.

The current training room located in Schuldes is undersized for a college of this size. When many sports are in-season, athletes can forfeit their time while they wait to soak in an ice bath, receive medical attention, or talk with a trainer. There is also not enough space nor equipment for proper athletic rehabilitation. The locker room located in the Schuldes weight room is very outdated and can become very crowded. The locker room is a place where athletes are going to spend a large amount of their time, and it should be a comfortable, clean atmosphere where athletes feel comfortable.

Almost every other school in the Midwest Conference has a 200m indoor track-the track that lies within the Schuldes Athletic Center is 160m. It is impossible for the SNC track team to hold home indoor track meets in Schuldes because of this fact. The track also has very tight turns and is composed of a harsh material-holding many practices on this track can cause athletes to experiences shin-splints and other injuries. Again, when many sports are in season, the track in Schuldes can be a very hectic place. Many athletes are forced to adhere to odd time schedules in order to accommodate all sports teams. Time is something that is precious to student-athletes, and the college should do everything in its power to help student-athletes maximize their time-management skills. If a new indoor track was created in the new athletic complex, the track in Schuldes could be used as a space for predominately intramural sports. Creating another track would also provide the college community with a less busy walking and running track.