The Pennington Recreation Center is a popular place on campus, providing students with various services such as the gym, group classes (dance, barre, stretching), basketball and racquetball courts, as well as a sauna. 

Each student has the opportunity to use the REC for free by providing a student ID. Those who are not classified as students can purchase annual passes to use all the services that Pennington provides.

On Nov. 21, 2022, basketball courts in the REC, used frequently by students, were closed for renovation. Pickup games allowing students to shoot hoops and improve their play at leisure were common pre-closure.

“People got used to not being able to use basketball courts since they are under renovation since last semester, so lately we haven’t heard any complaints about that,” staff member, Nico Anzaldua said.

While there were complaints about the court renovations, the court is now open again for those interested in getting back to it. 

Students and Southeastern athletes have taken note of the multiple broken machines in the gym. Boglarka Csordas, a tennis athlete at SLU, uses the gym often in addition to her practices with the team. 

“There are a lot of machines in REC that are broken right now and my biggest issue is that it’s been like this last semester. For instance, the abductor machine has been broken since fall and they are not fixing it. That’s the one I miss the most because there are not a lot of exercises for those muscles,” Csordas said. 

Despite the complaints, REC employees said they have minimal reports about broken equipment since there are multiples of the same machine. 

One staff member, Nico Anzaldua, further explained that the REC itself does not fix the machines and there is a waiting period for repairs. 

“We don’t fix the machines, we have to wait for the physical plan to come and then machines are fixed,” he said. 

Director of the REC Eric Aymond said he pays a lot of attention to the services they provide and does annual check-ups of all the machines in the gym. Many machines have been fixed; for example, one of the most used, the abductor machine, was fixed a couple of days ago and now is ready for usage. There is no particular cause for the equipment being broken, according to Aymond.

“Just everyday normal wear and tear. Every gym you go to is going to have similar issues. Honestly we have done a complete audit of all our machines and other than that we only have a couple of machines we have issues with, one of which was hip abduction and it’s been completed now,” he said.

The REC is doing everything to provide good and safe facilities for visitors and they do everything they can to fix all the problems as soon as possible.