Editor:

I was very disappointed to hear that the proposal to build a new fitness facility was turned down. I attended the U from 1998-2002, and I must have spent at least four hours a week working out in the Field House.

I cannot say enough about the Field House, but the thousands of laps I ran around the track probably took its toll on my knees. I heard that the Field House has more machines now, but when I attended, there were about 20 cardio machines. Add about five more in the HPER Building and that leaves about 25 machines for 30,000-plus students and faculty.

I do not think that anyone would argue that the fitness facilities at the U are completely inadequate. ??I recently visited three top-tier public universities: UC Berkeley, UCLA and University of Washington, and I promise that their facilities are far superior to the U’s.

You can make excuses for why the U is lacking in many areas, but the fact is that the U may never be mentioned in the same sentence as those schools-outside of football chatter, gymnastics and a few academic programs.

Is this what the students want? Is paying $120 more a year to get a brand-new facility really too expensive? Unfortunately, I guess it is. ??

I understand that building new facilities is much more difficult than calling Huntsman or raising student fees. I just hope that these past efforts to get funding do not go unnoticed and that a new facility is built in the near future. I doubt I am alone in saying that the facility would help build the campus community many students long for and it would help to maintain and attract better students and faculty. ??

Fritz Van de KampAlumnus