Students are concerned about safety after they say people who may not be associated with the university are using the campus gym.
The Aduddell Fitness Center near Oklahoma United Methodist Hall is a private gym for students, faculty and staff. Family members and guests of students, faculty and staff also are allowed to purchase fitness center memberships. All guests must sign in at the front desk while those with a university ID swipe in for entry.
Teresa Franks, music theater senior, said these policies aren’t enforced and students have told her that people in the gym are making them uncomfortable.
“All I would like to have is just knowing who’s in and out of the gym and maybe having some contact with them when they come in at the front door, just so that we know, and just so that people know that it’s either OCU people coming in or guests,” she said.
Franks said she posted on Facebook to see if other people felt similarly, and more than 45 people liked her post. She also said several people have come up to her in person to say they agree with her concerns.
Franks said she’s noticed an individual who comes to the gym somewhat frequently and does not swipe in, waiting for the door to the fitness center to be opened. She is unsure if the person is a student or faculty member, but he stares and has made multiple people uncomfortable, she said.
Franks said she was going to report the man, but there was no one at the front desk during that gym visit. She said she reported him the next time she saw him there.
“I told the young lady at the front desk. She said she’d call her boss. He said he couldn’t be there at the time and that was that,” she said.
Josh Hall, assistant director of student life, intramural sports and recreation, manages the fitness center. Hall said the fitness center team has been trying to identify the man, but he has not returned.
Hall said this is the first incident he’s heard about in relation to safety at the fitness center.
“We take the safety of the OCU community very seriously, and we want to make sure that this is a student gym that all students should feel comfortable in,” he said. “I’m appreciative that someone spoke up and said that they felt uncomfortable.”
The front desk staff is supposed to turn away people if they are not OCU community members and inform them of the ID card rule, Hall said. He said a worker should be in the fitness center or at the desk during all open hours. The staff recently was instructed not to let anyone in without an ID card, regardless of their position as a student or faculty member.
“We need to know who everyone is in the facility,” Hall said. “It is enforced that we have a card swipe system outside of the fitness center, and students, just like in the dorms, are not supposed to hold open doors for other people.”
The fitness center also has a live camera feed streamed to the OCU Police Department, and the swipe system records every user’s B number and name.
Hall said anyone noticing suspicious behavior should report it to him or OCUPD. If a student notices someone entering the building without swiping, they can report it to him, the front desk or OCUPD.
Hall said other options for reporting incidents include contacting Dr. Amy Ayres, vice president for student affairs and dean of students, or filing a Title IX report.
Franks said she thinks officials should be responsible for student safety in the fitness center.
“It’s not the students’ responsibility to call OCUPD on every person that makes them feel uncomfortable,” she said. “If I express that to the front desk, they should be the ones to call OCUPD.”
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