By Andrew Kruszka, Contributing Writer
The Sandra A. & William L. Richter Center is St. Bonaventure University’s fitness building for non-student athletes on campus. Although some of the time, a Division I athlete may catch your eye as they do have workouts and activities in there, most of the time, the general non-athlete student population on campus is what it is used for. It has high-class workout equipment and offers different workout activities such as running, stretching, and conditioning. To go along with that, it’s also filled with three basketball courts, a ping pong table and two racquetball courts. The Richter Center has nice hours, too. It opens as early as 6 a.m., and it stays open until midnight most days of the week.
Because of intramural and club sports, the Richter becomes popular at 7 p.m. The Richter Center is the place on campus that holds these events and for the most part, they do not take place at the Reilly Center located just a stone throw away from the Richter. Therefore, during that said time, all of the courts are filled with these activities and it leaves little to no room for students to shoot hoops or throw a football around.
There are two ways to solve this problem for students who do not participate in intramurals or club sports. One would be to join one of them. Not every student wants to make that commitment or is good enough to make a club team and does not want to be on a certain schedule to play intramurals.
That brings up the key point and the second way to solve the problem. St. Bonaventure should open up another court in the Richter Center, or close off a court every night so that only students who are not in one of these organized events are allowed to be on it. With something like that there would have to be a set of rules. For example, students that come in to take the court are only allowed to use half of the court so that another group can come in as well. Along with that, a time frame should be put into the amount of time these students have on the court so that more students have the opportunity to get their exercise in when it’s most convenient for them.
It would take a chunk of change for the University to fund putting another court in the Richter Center, so the next best thing would be to close off a court for students to use. If they were to get the money for it, putting in a new court would take a lot of time, effort and planning and is unlikely to happen. Students should stand up for their right to use the courts at whatever time is most convenient for them.
This won’t solve all of the problems but it will satisfy a portion of our student body. Not every student has a schedule that can comply with going to the Richter Center to get their daily jumpers in at noon which is why the most popular time is right after dinner until the late stages of the night. Closing off a court for students to use is not something that would be hard to do and it would satisfy multiple students. It’s something that our Richter Center staff should consider.
kruszka18@bonaventure.edu
