When Ohio University administrators, faculty and student leaders were in the planning stages of Ping Center, they were focused on pleasing the student body with a welcoming environment. As a result, the facility might be pushed beyond its limits — overcrowded with students exercising, basketball or racquetball playing, and weight lifting.
"We didn't want it to have the feel of a smelly old gym," said John Kotowski, assistant vice president for facilities planning, who was on the Ping Center planning committee in the early '90s. "We were giving students what they wanted — a stronger recreation center."
Prior to 1996 when Ping Center opened, students could exercise in Grover Center. Kotowski said there was a push to build a new recreation center because current students wanted a bigger center with a wider variety of options, and prospective students were deciding to go to school elsewhere because of the lack of recreation options at OU.
But now students are fighting crowds, waiting up to an hour to get on machines and dealing with broken equipment.
Hafedh Benhadj, director of Ping Center, said there could be a variety of reasons causing these problems.
"The freshman classes keep getting bigger each year, so obviously enrollment is increasing," he said. "Plus the weather is a major factor of why people come to Ping. When it's raining every day, people can't participate in any outdoor activities.
"In the winter, we are busting at the seams because of the weather. This year especially because we had such a bad winter."
The broken equipment, he said, is due to overuse.
"The more the machines and equipment are used, the more they break down," he said. "That's the biggest challenge — the amount of maintenance required."
Because the facility is in its peak usage from 3 p.m. to the time it closes, the maintenance crew uses the slower morning hours to fix problems and clean. But now, even the morning hours are seeing more activity, Benhadj said.
The planners were expecting high usage when Ping Center opened because they knew it was what the students wanted.
"The students were asking for it, so we knew they would use it well," said Vice President for Student Affairs Mike Sostarich, who also was on the Ping Center planning committee. "We especially knew the exercise and weight rooms would get good use."
And the usage rates continue to climb. As of May 31, more than 485,000 people had used Ping Center this year. That is up 3.2 percent from the same time one year ago. For the 2002 fiscal year, which goes from June to July, more than 482,000 people used Ping Center.
Numbers were even higher when physical activity academic classes were offered in Ping Center when Grover Center was being renovated three years ago, Benhadj said. The usage rate for 2001 was 509,161.
"Having classes scheduled in the building only added to the problem with crowds," Benhadj said. "We couldn't schedule any classes past three so we wouldn't interfere with the peak usage time."
Officials say the overcrowding problem only will be solved by expanding the existing building. But in a time of budget crisis, the money just is not there.
"We could always expand out the back of the building because we have the land, but that takes money." Benhadj said. "We've also looked into finishing the area above the administration offices on the first floor, but that would cost $300,000, which we don't have."
Students do pay a $65 recreation fee every quarter, but not all of that money goes to Ping Center, and even if it did, it would go to cover the operation costs, Benhadj said. It annually costs $1.2 million just to maintain the facility, which includes paying for things like lighting and heating. The other part of the student fee, as well as money from concession sales, alumni donations and the faculty and staff fee, pays to fix broken equipment.
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Jennifer Hugenberg
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Ohio University students take advantage of the Ping Recreation Center yesterday afternoon. During it's busy hours many of the students that frequent Ping complain about the wait for machines.
