Student Activity Center open under new guidelines for spring
CMU has opened the Student Activity Center for the spring semester under COVID-19 safety guidelines and has opened three new areas.
University Recreation has allowed the opening of basketball, soccer and hockey areas for the spring, granted that students abide by mask-wearing and social distancing guidelines.
According to URec's Facebook page, the basketball courts are limited to four people (2v2) in a half-court. Hockey will allow eight people (4v4) per rink and soccer will allow four people (2v2) per court.
"It (opening new zones) feels great," said Jennifer Nottingham, who is the Interim Executive Director for University Recreation and Student Activities. "It's kind of that sense of normalcy coming back again, right? It's exciting to be offering some wellness and some engagement for our students."
Nottingham said that she and her team are always excited when they are able to move forward in making plans when updated executive orders allow them to, but sometimes they have to move backwards, too.
"We had that happen right before we left for the semester -- right before Thanksgiving -- when we had to shut down all contact sports," Nottingham said. "We couldn't allow anybody on the basketball courts, to play volleyball, badminton, and those were things people were enjoying doing ... it felt weird that those courts were empty."
The courts were closed from November to the middle of January, and re-opened when University Recreation was able to create a plan for safe interactions for contact and non-contact sports.
Additionally, Nottingham was pleased to announce the return of some intramural and club sports for the spring. Her team researched and reached out to university recreation programs in other states to help determine the safest approach to returning to these activities in regard to temperature, practicing, contact lists and more.
"For intramurals-- it's fun, we have three-on-three basketball, six-on-six volleyball," Nottingham said. "I think it's the social fun-ness that bring people together and have some competition, we're seeing great results and great participation numbers in intramurals, especially in the volleyball season."
University Recreation also offers casual, non-contact games such as cornhole, euchre and ping pong.
The basketball and soccer courts in the SAC are open by reservation from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday and 4-9 p.m. on weekends. Hockey will be open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
The Fitness Center, Weight Training Center and pool will remain open under limited capacity with reservations.
The Fitness Center will be open 7 a.m.-9:45a.m. and 4 p.m.-9:45 p.m. on weekdays and 4 p.m.-8:15 p.m. on weekends. The Weight Training Center and MAC gyms are open from 4-9:45 p.m. on weekdays and 4 p.m.-8:15 p.m. on weekends.
Also, the track, racquetball courts (2v2 table tennis, 3v3 volleyball, 2v2 racquetball) and Large/Small Sports Forum (6v6 volleyball, 2v2 billiards, badminton) are all open from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. on weekdays and 4-9 p.m. on weekends.
Students may make reservations to use the Student Activity Center and sign up for intramural sports on IMLeagues.
Spring semester hours for the Student Activity Center can be viewed on University Recreation's Facebook page.
