ARC weekday hours limited to afternoons, evenings
The UC Davis Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) officially opened to students on Nov. 2. Andy Ramirez, the associate director of Campus Recreation, outlined the procedures students should be aware of prior to their workout at the ARC.
“All patrons are required to complete a symptom survey before entering, wear a face covering everywhere in the building and stay a minimum of six feet apart at all times,” Ramirez said.
Students can reserve a gym time at rec.ucdavis.edu and are advised to download the UC Davis Recreation app to speed up the line by using the app’s QR code to check in.
An employee for Living Well at Campus Recreation said that the app offers both the ability to complete a symptom survey and the convenience of holding students’ reservations.
“We are told not to take ID’s to lower the risk of transmission,” the employee said.
While students can verbally tell the attendant their student ID number, this slows down the process and infringes on students’ hour-long time slot at the ARC.
To make a reservation on the app, select “reservation,” log in with a Kerberos password and select a day and time. The ARC is open Monday-Friday from 5:00-10:30 p.m. and on weekends from 1:00-6:30 p.m. The ARC’s evening operations are attributed to accommodating popular lecture times, according to the employee.
The ARC has implemented measures to ensure COVID-19 precautions are respected. All equipment has been placed six feet apart and mechanical machines have been taken offline.
“Currently, we are limiting our capacity to 150 students in ‘reservation blocks’ throughout the day,” Ramirez said. “Students will need to reserve a time online prior to visiting the ARC. That number of patrons is below 10% of ARC capacity and helps patrons follow physical distancing guidelines.”
Ramirez said that student campus recreation staff is tasked with cleaning the entire building between each reservation block.
“We wear these backpacks that are filled with disinfectant cleaner,” the employee said. “When the ARC shuts down, we go to every single piece of equipment, every rack, every area in the ARC and use that disinfectant sprayer.”
“Protective plexiglass has been installed at all point-of-sale stations for employee safety,” Ramirez said. “Also, we are scheduling student employees so they can work a safe distance from each other. Employees have access to all the appropriate PPE for their job and cleaning duties. Hand sanitizer has been placed at the front desk for both employee and patron access.”
The employee explained the difficulty surrounding scheduling outdoor classes. Factors such as weather, air quality index and wind play into scheduling decisions. She also applauded the student campus recreation workers’ diligence in their planning.
“The student workers built a plan from scratch for group exercise classes to be outdoors,” the employee said. “I feel that a lot of the student campus recreation workers don’t get enough credit for what [they] do.”
So far, the employee and Ramirez observed that campus recreation is doing the best they can under the circumstances provided.
“I was really impressed with the compliance of our students and our campus community regarding the new county health guidelines,” Ramirez said. “People just wanted a place to experience wellness after being sheltered in place. Wellness and exercise is really important during these times, and our number one priority is student safety.”
Yolo County, although currently classified as being in the red “substantial” level of COVID-19, is trending back towards being in the purple “widespread” level, according to data from the county’s health and human services website. The percentage of positive cases has been on the rise, and if it continues, the county will be forced to adhere to the more restrictive measures of those in the purple tier around the state, which may include the re-closure of the ARC.
“To help keep our Aggie community healthy, we ask that students follow university guidelines and protocol when visiting our facilities,” Ramirez said. “These are challenging times, but Aggies have always been at the forefront of solving the world’s problems, and our campus community will make it through these hard times.”
Written by: Hannah Blome — campus@theaggie.org
