The Student Recreation Center (SRC) at California State University Stanislaus (Stan State), is an exclusive facility for students who are looking to improve their health and it underwent changes in the past in order to improve the experiences of the students who visit it.

The past changes currently in effect are the hand scanner to sign into the facility, and the rock climbing walls at the entrance of the facility so students can participate in climbing.

The reason why the hand scanner was implemented was to help staff with recording the attendance and confirming the identities of the people who were using the facility.  

Joshua Levesque (Recreation Specialist, Fitness Programs) explained why the hand scanners were implemented. 

“We did that so we can actually count how many people were using our facility. Before, we had no technology in how to track who used our facility, all we used were tally marks. Of course, when we have students tally mark every time someone walks in there’s a big issue with human error”, said Levesque.

 “When we first installed this fusion system with this hand scanner within the first week we had caught 12 people that were not even students anymore who were not paying their memberships” added Levesque.

Austin Burns (senior, Criminal Justice) likes how the hand scanners are a way to sign in to the center.

“The hand scanner is really cool and I guess it’s a nice way to make security technically a little tight to make sure no one comes in who shouldn’t. Just sucks typing in your ID [number] every time though, would be a little cooler if it was just a hand scan” said Burns.

Another addition that the Center provides is a rock climbing wall by the company Walltopia.

Levesque stated why the reasoning behind the rock climbing wall, “The director wanted to build that because no one really knew what this place was by looking outside. A lot of people would say ‘oh I thought it was a library’, so he wanted to do something that would kind of give it a different look. So, he was like ‘I’m going to build these two boulders outside and I can say the two boulders look like teeth outside come there, that’s where our facility is”’.

Bundith Paseut (senior, Liberal Studies) is a student who utilizes the rock wall.

“I use it whenever I want to work on upper body and grip strength” Paseut explains. 

These changes in the SRC have been beneficial for the complex and the students, and the changes are adding more to the current features this center currently offers.

 Miriam Sanchez (senior, Kinesiology) who works at the center, listed other activities that the SRC offers. 

“Some of the features we have here in the SRC are the intramural sports we offer every semester, which is really fun, group X classes, yoga, weight room, and we also have a pool too” said Sanchez.

However, because the SRC is a small facility there are potential plans to increase the size.

Two complications occur when considering an expansion: an increase in tuition, and obtaining votes for a referendum.    

“The only problem is that’s going to be a 47 million dollar project, so that means we would have to increase the student fees by 175 dollars a semester”, said Levesque adding, “They pay 137.50 [dollars] a semester to use our facility, that means we would have to add 175 [dollars] on top of the 137.50 to increase the size of what is necessary”.

Some students that use the facility would not mind paying extra in tuition if that meant increasing the size.

In regards to increasing tuition Paseut responded, “No problem paying at least $100 more in tuition to increase it.”

 Matt Fraze (lecturer, kinesiology) stated why it is important to stay fit.

“First of all it reduces diseases that are preventable. Secondly, it helps with stress reduction, it helps with quality of life” said Fraze, adding”The biggest thing for us is to reduce preventable diseases, it’s the leading intervention for type II diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues. That’s one of the reasons why we push physical fitness quite a bit.” 

Stan State students who have any questions regarding the SRC can visit their website, or visit the SRC Monday through Friday.