Durham College and UOIT have risen to the ultimate level. The campuses now have an ultimate Frisbee club called DC/UOIT Ultimate Club. But it didn’t just pop up over night. Club president Chris Julien says they’ve been working on getting everything organized since November.
They applied then to become a club under the Student Association but Julien says they’ve had issues getting gym time, or time in the Polonsky Commons. He says there are plans for the future to make the club into an extramural team to compete against other schools.
Students will have the opportunity to make, change or challenge their opinion on who Jesus is at The Jesus Debate being held at Durham College and UOIT’s North campus Thursday, Feb. 9.
Three campus clubs, the Skeptics’ Symposium, the Muslim Student Association and Campus Church are hosting this free event in the gym at Durham College from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. A valid student card is required to attend the event.
The skeptic symposium invited Dr. Christopher DiCarlo, who spoke at the campus’ 2009 Does God Exist debate, to debate that Jesus is merely a metaphor.
For the Muslim Student Association, UOIT PhD candidate Shabir Ally will address the position of Jesus as a prophet.The Campus Church enlisted Dr. Tony Costa, a Christian Minister, to share the view that Jesus is the Son of God.
Imagine if students had the choice to run inside and outside.
Story, image and audio by Cait Hoock
Indoor track. Check
Indoor basketball court. Check.
If you take a look around campus, you’ll notice the large indoor training facilities, but if you look outside, there’s no space to workout.
“We used to have outdoor basketball and beach volleyball, but the school population then was between 5,000 and 6.000 students,” says facilities supervisor Dwayne Christo.
As the population grew, so too did the need for more parking space and the new indoor gym facilities. Then, after the tennis centre and ice centre were built, a building moratorium was ordered for the next decade.
While there has been talk of building another beach volleyball court, it all depends on whether the campus will extend north of Conlin Road, says Christo.
“We can’t build for 10 years and I think we’re in our seventh or eighth year,” he says. “If it’s possible in the future, those questions will come up.”
While the indoor facility provides year-round access to students, building something outside would limit that access. And when the warmer weather hits, most of the student population is gone.
“Once you’ve built these new facilities, we don’t want it free for the public. You still want to generate some revenue,” he says. “And it would be very hard to supervise.”
While there is a possibility for an outdoor track and basketball courts in the future, it all depends on if the benefits outweigh the cost.
Students get physical at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre.
February is here and that means the stress of exams and the leisure of reading week. This sometimes means taking a break from being active and staying healthy.
Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre Fitness coordinator, Angie Wood says she sees a decline in gym attendance this time of year when it might be the most beneficial.
“We definitely find a drop off in the number of students and people in general who are attending the gym, once the busy time of tests, exams and assignments pop up.”
She said that physical activity is good for not only the body but the mind as well.
“I would suggest just in terms of managing stress, if the students continue to come at those times, even if they can come for only an hour or a half an hour it can be beneficial and help them stay in focus for their exams and assignments.”
Wood went on to say if students set up a date on their calendar and tell themselves that this is the time scheduled for physical activity it will be easier to accomplish.
With Reading Week fast approaching many students will be going home or away and might not have access to equipment to exercise. Wood also had some suggestions for ways students could stay active during the break and still have fun.
She said it is important that students especially, with their busy lifestyles, eat the right foods and try to get the right amount of physical activity.
“Canadian and American guidelines suggest that we are active most days of the week, so even if you can only get a half hour it can still be really beneficial to your health.”
Walking into a maze of oddly shaped, confusing contraptions, otherwise known as the gym, can be a little daunting for some. These large, bizarre pieces of equipment can end up as people-watching benches if the user is unaware of just how they work. This is one of the reasons The Campus Flex Centre recently introduced their new program, Intro to Personal Training.
“A lot of people shy away from the Flex because they aren’t familiar with the machines,” says certified personal trainer, Kelsie Beasley.
The new program is now on its second week, focusing on creating personal training awareness as well as educating students on the different weight and cardio machines.
New client Rupinder Brar gets some one-on-one attention from Personal Trainer Kelsie Beasley.
“It’s building a program card so that they’re able to familiarize themselves and feel comfortable operating all the different pieces of machinery that we have,” says Beasley.
Both trainers run their own classes, each being an hour long. Today was the second scheduled class for Beasley and although she only has three people signed up, she is optimistic more will join.
“This program is brand spanking new,” she says. “And each week has a theme. This week we were looking at the Star Trac Atlantis resistance machinery and how to use them correctly.”
Beasley explains that the classes are run in groups so that students can buddy up and feel more secure as opposed to being singled out.
Listen to Beasley go into more depth about what her classes are all about.
Anyone interested in signing up can do so at The Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre, located right beneath the Flex Centre.
It may be March but many people are still going strong with their New Year’s resolution to get fit. As well, people may be starting to think about summer and what they might look like as they are strut their stuff on the beach. Well, to keep fit, you might just want to check out the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre (CWRC) at Durham College.
This is the banner that welcomes people to the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre
The facility has grown, since it started in the Gordon Willey building of Durham College, from two gyms and a small weight room that used to be located at the end of the hallway outside gym 1 and 2.
The facility, as it stands now, is just getting ready to enter into its third year of operations and offers such activities as a track, five gyms, and a modern-looking weight room complete with televisions and free weights.
Facility coordinator for CRWC, Michelle Roberts, said that the main reason for the expansion of the three new gyms, the flex centre and the track was to mainly accommodate the increase of students from UOIT.
The centre is not just for current students as they cater to former students as well by offering them a discount on the regular fee to use the gym, which right now is a $50 dollar discount off the membership price, but this is currently being revisited.
As for the number of students that use the facility in a month Michelle could not be totally sure but estimated that the facility is used by five thousand people per month.
Hours of operation for the centre as of September 8th are Monday to Thursday 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. but one thing you might want to keep in mind: activity areas close 30 minutes before the closing time of the facility, but the lockers remain open for 30 minutes after the facility closes.
So get up and get going and work out to your hearts content all while getting an education. After all, you already pay for the facility as part of your tuition so get all you can out of it.
