The new semester is already in motion, and so are UF students.
Except at Student Recreation & Fitness Center and Southwest Recreation Center, students wait in line to use gym equipment as if they were queueing up for a night out at 101 Cantina.
Pam Hightower, assistant director of administrative services with the UF Department of Recreational Sports, said the gyms employ a “one in, one out” system at the beginning of each semester until students adjust to their schedules.
“Usually after week two everyone has adjusted and we’re more balanced,” she said. “Right now, people are all coming at the same hours.”
Hightower said the gyms experience the heaviest traffic after 4 p.m. and the greatest number of incoming gym attendees arrive between 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wait times average five minutes, she said.
Mitch Williams, a fifth-year UF chemical engineering student and operations manager with the Department of Recreational Sports, said the gyms are packed because students don’t have many responsibilities at the beginning of the semester.
“That’s when you’ll see the lines outside and the associates acting as bouncers,” said Williams, 22.
Carolina Casariego, an 18-year-old UF sports management freshman, said that it’s time consuming to work out at SRC.
“It’s just more of a hassle to go,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/28/2014 under the headline "New semester brings crowds to campus gyms"]
Daniel Taylor, a 22 year old International Business graduate student, lifts weights Wednesday at the Student Recreational Center.
