Ernie Davis’ gym was nearly deserted last Tuesday at 1 p.m. Only about 10 students were working out on the brand-new exercise machines.

But Joseph Lore, director of Syracuse University’s Recreation Services, said this sight is deceiving. The month-old Ernie Davis gym attracts nearly 600 people a day, Lore said. By comparison, the larger, older, better-known Archbold Gymnasium draws double that each day, he said.

With the addition of the new gym, Lore believes additional students on campus are exercising more often because the rest of the campus gyms have not seen a decrease in attendance since Ernie Davis opened.

Lisa Pang, a senior biochemistry major and student supervisor of Ernie Davis’ gym, said that within the first week the fitness center’s opening, 3,000 people came to use the facility.

However, there may be a lack of campus awareness about the Ernie Davis gym. Koko Uko, a freshman civil engineering major, works at the gym’s desk and said she has yet to see any student wait for a machine at the gym, which is a common problem at Archbold.

‘The school should hang up signs announcing the new gym at Archbold in the waiting room telling people where it is,’ Uko said. ‘I think some people just don’t know about it.’

Marissa Eimer, a senior inclusive elementary and special education and sociology major, said she used to go to the Marshall Square Mall Fitness Center on a daily basis but is now excited to go to Ernie Davis gym because it is closer to her apartment.

When it opened, the Ernie Davis gym became the sixth fitness center on campus. Marion Hall, Brewster-Boland-Brockway, Marshall Square Mall, the Goldstein Student Center on South Campus and the Women’s Building also have gyms.

‘When we opened up the Marshall Square Mall Fitness Center it was believed that it would reduce the number of people going to Archbold, and we found out it didn’t but more people were working out,’ Lore said.

Eliza Decker, assistant director for facilities, wellness and aquatics, said she thinks the Ernie Davis gym should eliminate some of the congestion at Archbold.

‘The students want to see newer and brighter things in their surroundings,’ Decker said. ‘Everything is brand new, state of the art. At Ernie Davis, the students are getting everything they want.’

The Ernie Davis gym contains three high-end treadmills that are not available at Archbold. It also boasts several new rowing machines, which provide an upper-body strength-training workout.

Stefanie Paroulek, a fifth-year architecture and economics major, mainly works at the Ernie Davis gym front desk but has worked at Archbold recently. Paroulek said there is still congestion at Archbold, and she doubts everyone on campus knows that Ernie Davis gym is up and running.

‘It’s a little more low-key than Archbold,’ Paroulek said. ‘People should come here to test out the new equipment. It’s really a great space.’

Uko, who works with Paroulek at Ernie Davis, said her favorite part of the new gym facility is the way it is set up. She said it makes it easier to work out since everything is in a separate place and no one bumps into each other.

Chloe Mazzone, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, has worked at the Marion gym since the beginning of the semester. She said very few people use the gym.

‘There aren’t free weights here,’ Mazzone said referring to the Marion gym. ‘That’s the advantage of going to Ernie Davis and the other gyms.’

rltoback@syr.edu

Published on February 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm