The Student Recreation Center (SRC), which serves as a gym and stress outlet for over 1,000 Fresno State students each day, was packed with hundreds of people as it celebrated its 10-year anniversary on Monday.
Since the center first opened in early February 2006, it has greatly expanded the programs offered, SRC assistant director Amy Allen said.
“When we first opened, we didn’t sell anything in the building,” Allen said. “Intramurals also moved over in 2007. We’ve added group fitness classes. We’ve added quite a bit more.”
The original idea for the center was just a gym for students to come and work out, director Derek Walters said.
“Since then, we’ve added classes with weights, yoga classes, Zumba ”” things like that,” Walters said. “We’ve had as many as 10 classes a day.”
As the center has grown, Walters said there has been an effort to grow its staff with Fresno State students.
“One of our philosophies was, because we are student-funded that we be lean on the administrative side,” Walters said. “There’s only five administrative staff members. We employ about 70 students so that the student fee money that comes to the rec center gets back into student pockets.”
Though the center does allow guests to come for a $10 daily fee, Walters said the guest passes are usually sold to just 10 or 15 people each day, compared with the nearly 1,400 to 1,500 students coming each day during the weekdays.
For the center’s anniversary, more than a half dozen groups had promotional booths. Nutritionists from the Student Health and Wellness Center and Peer Ambassadors of Wellness hosted tables to promote different health programs they offer to students.
Other groups hosting tables on Monday included the Lyles Center, Club Sports and Intramural Sports.
“Basically, intramurals offers sports for students on campus,” said Daniel Torres, an intramural referee. “It’s a competitive league.”
Intramural sports include basketball, softball, flag football, soccer, billiards and even ultimate frisbee, Torres said. Some sports are held outside of the SRC’s premises due to the need for a field, while indoor soccer, basketball and others are held inside of the center.
Junior and human resources management major Henry Jimenez has been coming to the SRC since fall 2015 and joined an indoor soccer intramural sports team this semester.
“I like it,” Jimenez said of his experience doing intramural sports at the SRC. “I’m going to get to know a couple people. I don’t really talk too much outside of school ”” I just go to class and then to work ”” so it’ll be a nice thing to meet some new people, maybe start some new friendships.”
