The Online Reflector

Students who use the free weights on the second floor of the Schwitzer Student Center will now have to use their student ID to check them out of the Student Business Center.

The weights, which were originally placed on a rack for students to use for free at anytime, now have to be monitored because of theft.

According to Indianapolis Student Government President Valerie Wilson, 38 weights have been stolen from the second floor of Schwitzer.

“UIndy is a small campus, and as a small campus, students get lots of benefits such as free printing and plenty of access to facilities,” Wilson said. “It seems to me that students have been taking advantage of the school’s benefits this year. Unfortunately, that means the school has to put new policies in place that protect the facilities and resources.”

The Student Business Center is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., when most students are in class.

Those students who work out in the evenings or on the weekends will be unable to use the weights.

“I think it is the best option for the time being,” Wilson said. “I would assume it’s a bit of an inconvenience, but for the time being, it works.”

Since the renovations to Schwitzer, the added workout space on the second floor has always been available free of charge to students. However, according to Strength and Conditioning Coach Steve Barrick, a set of weights typically costs about $2 per pound, so buying many sets of weights can get expensive.

“I hope this will be a warning to the students to start being more responsible, honest and respectful of our campus and UIndy property,” Wilson said.

This situation has not been confined to Schwitzer. Weights also have been stolen from the weight room in the Ruth Lilly Fitness Center, which typically provides much heavier weights than Schwitzer’s 5 to 20 pound weight range.

“Due to theft, we have a lot of dumbbells with only one of each weight,” Barrick said. “We also find we have an off number of bumper plates.”

Barrick noted that items such as jump ropes and flex bands also have been missing, which are easy for students to hide in bags. He said this affects not only the students who would like to use all of this equipment, but the strength and conditioning program as a whole.

“It affects our ability to do some training with dumbbells [that] we would like to do,” Barrick said. “With Olympic lifts, we would like to have enough of each colored weight per bar, but we don’t.”

As one solution, both Barrick and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Adam Thackery have made an effort to be more aware of weight room activity. Student workers in the weight room also have been asked to be more aware. As a result of this, the number of stolen items has decreased this semester.

Barrick said they have been unable to purchase equipment to replace the stolen items in order to save money for the proposed new weight room in the Athletics and Recreation Center.

“We will just have to do without,” Barrick said. “We are anticipating a new weight room, and purchasing new weights can get pretty expensive.”