In response to requests for additional hours, the athletic department has expanded the weekday hours of operation at the Freeman Athletic Center for the spring semester. The building now opens at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday—instead of the previous opening time of 7 a.m.—with the Andersen Fitness Center opening 15 minutes later, at 6:45 a.m. The building’s weekend hours remain unchanged, as do the weekday closing times.

“Our thinking is that opening the building at 6:30 gives people time to go to the locker room, change and get ready to work out,” said Assistant Director of Athletics for Operations Erin Carey. “It essentially…gives them a half hour more of workout time than before. Before, the building used to open at 7:00; if they had to go change, they didn’t get there [the fitness center] until 7:15 or so.”

Carey added that the department did not have to hire any additional monitors for the front desk and fitness center to expand the building’s hours. Instead, the monitors whose shifts begin at 7:00 a.m. have been asked to come in earlier.

A demand for increased hours was indicated in a survey conducted during the fall semester by an intern to the Athletic Department, Eric Fritz. Fritz left copies of the survey on the monitor desk in the fitness center and asked the monitors to encourage fitness center patrons to complete the survey. A total of 221 student visitors to the fitness center filled out the survey. In response to a question asking patrons to identify one thing they would add or change, 19.9 percent of respondents requested additional hours, a higher percentage than any other response except “None.” Specifically, twenty-five respondents (11.3 percent) requested more hours, while an additional 17 respondents (7.7 percent) requested additional Sunday hours. Additionally, one person requested that the facility open earlier and another person requested it stay open later.

In addition to the change in building hours, the accessible hours of the Warren Street and bridge entrances have been extended. Both entrances remain locked throughout the day and require the use of a Wesleyan ID card for entry. The card readers previously went offline at 9:00 p.m. but now remain online until the building closes.

During the fall semester, the Bacon Field House and Rosenbaum Squash Center opened at the same time as the building, and the pool opened 15 minutes later. However, despite the earlier opening time, the weekday opening times of the field house and squash courts have remained at 7:00 a.m., with the pool opening at 7:15 a.m. Carey explained that the opening times are determined in part by the work that must be performed to prepare the facilities for use—and the department did not believe there would be enough demand for those facilities during the early-morning hours to justify opening them earlier.

The last time the hours at Freeman were changed was at the start of the spring 2007 semester. At that time, the hours of operation were extended by one hour (until 10:00 p.m.) Monday through Wednesday and shortened by one hour (to 11:00 p.m.) the other three days.

Completed in 2005, the Andersen Fitness Center is the fourth largest fitness center in the NESCAC, at 7,500 square feet. Only Hamilton (9,600 square feet), Middlebury (9,200 square feet), and Amherst (8,000 square feet) have larger facilities.

The change also brings the fitness center’s hours of operation more in line with Wesleyan’s peers. During the fall, the fitness center was open 97 hours, 15 minutes per week—the third-lowest operating time in the NESCAC. Only Bates (82 hours, 30 minutes) and Middlebury (95 hours) had fewer hours per week. The facility is now open 98 hours and 30 minutes per week, moving Wesleyan ahead of Connecticut College (97 hours, 30 minutes) and tying it with Williams, just behind Tufts (99 hours).