Cardiovascular strength classes offered by the Department of Athletics and Recreation no longer require full-time students to dig into their wallets – just their energy reserves.
Nancy Tierney, director of fitness and wellness programs, and Dan Bulfin, director of recreation, decided this summer to eliminate the fees to encourage physical activity among students.
Classes in the program include Cycle Challenge, Core Strength and Boot Camp.
Last year, an unlimited quarterly pass to all cardio strength classes cost students $69. But programs like personal training at SPAC have generated enough revenue to cover the cost of running the classes for free, Bulfin said.
Participation in the classes have increased, Tierney said. The number of participants during the second week in the Monday Interval Training class increased from 15 last year to 25 participants this year. The Wednesday Total Body Workout class experienced a similar increase from 17 during the second week last year to 27 participants this year.
Medill junior Amber Sasse said she has always wanted to try cycling, but didn’t register for a cardio-strength pass until now.
“Once they were free, I jumped on the opportunity,” she said.
Attendance tends to increase as the quarter progresses, Tierney said.
Though students have free access to a quarter’s worth of cardio-strength classes, they will still have to pay for the yoga and Pilates classes. A quarterly pass to those classes will cost students $99.
“That’s 14 weeks of unlimited access to all 20 classes,” Tierney said. “I don’t know of any other program that allows you that many options for that price, especially with yoga and Pilates.”
Higher rates for non-students help subsidize student rates, Bulfin said. Members of the public and NU affiliates are charged $159 for the same Mind-Body pass for Pilates and yoga.
Students still have to pay because tuition and fees do not cover recreational programs and facilities, he said.
David Giljohann takes spinning classes three days a week at SPAC.
“Before it was tough to get friends to come to the classes and try them out, because they knew they’d have to eventually pay for it,” said the IBIS graduate student.
He brought McCormick senior Taylor Reif along to try last Friday’s “Cycle Circuit” spinning class.
“The classes being free is a huge part of me being here,” Reif said. “Undergraduates just don’t have a lot of expendable money for the classes, especially since running … on the treadmill is free, and it still gives you a good cardio workout.”
Weinberg sophomore Eileen Driscoll said she was motivated to sign up for the classes once she found out they were free.
“I’ve gone to SPAC to use the elliptical machines and the running machines, but I prefer to do an actual class that does cardio rather than doing it by myself,” said Driscoll. “When I found out they were free, I was really excited.”
