Campus Recreation on the UIUC campus has a slogan that says "Campus Recreation: A Place For Everyone." This was a place where somebody could come in their leisure time and have fun through forms of activity. I took their slogan as basically meaning that this was a place where anybody could do almost whatever they wanted. I say that because that's the feeling that I got when I went to one of their campus rec facilities on campus. I went to Campus Recreation Center East, also known as CRCE by many of the students and other people in the community. CRCE is open to the public whether they be students of the University of just somebody living in the Champaign-Urbana community. During my visit to this facility I did a study on some of the programs that they offered to people for a form of leisure. They offer programs such as aquatics, club sports, Intramural activities, and personal training.
Employment:
When I first entered CRCE, I saw that there was an employee at the entrance of the facility swiping cards to verify if a person had a membership or not. I asked them if they had any employment brochures that I could look over for a leisure project that I was conducting and she recommended me to talk to the manager on duty. I went over to the manager and I told her about my project and she told me she could give me some information but couldn't let me take a picture of her because of a policy
they had. After she gave me some information I just walked around myself and took a couple pictures of the lower employees and a poster I saw. The manager told me that most students, if they wanted to apply for a job, applied online and started off as facility managers normally. Other than this she told me that Campus Recreation had internships, graduate assistantships, and professional positions a person could apply for as well.
Aquatics:
One of the first features of CRCE that you see once you walk in is the aquatic center. T
his area was closed but the manager told me that the aquatic center is open during certain hours to people who wanted to just have plain fun or attend certain classes they had available. She told me that they offer swim lessons for babies, youth, and adults
and always have a lifeguard on duty to insure safety for swimmers at all times. Next to the pool was a hot tub where people could come relax after a long day or a long workout. Connected to the pool was also a water slide and in the pool was a small basketball rim. They have volleyball and water polo activities in the pool for people who were interested in playing sports while swimming. After swimming they have men and women locker rooms with showers and a changing area for people so they won't have to go home wet.
Next in CRCE there was an area that the manager told me was used for basketball, soccer, yoga, and hockey which all could be played on one court. They held games
and practices here for soccer leagues and hockey teams. If you ever wanted to play any of these sports just for leisure, this is the area you could go to and they could provide you with rental equipment. A couple times a week they hold large yoga classes in this area and other days they have small pick up games for the above sports also. Even though
most people come for the above activities, the manager also informed me that students and other people also come to this area to play rugby, football, and racquetball. They have other multipurpose areas next to this one to serve as an overflow just in case this one gets overcrowded. Those extra rooms could hold one sport activity at a time. So as you can see these multipurpose rooms could be used by plenty of people with different interests and different ways they want to spend their leisure time.
Intramural Activities:
The manager told me on our way to the main court that this was area where they
held open court and Intramural games. She told me that Intramural Activities was really the foundation of Campus Rec so the games they held here were really a big deal. They have certifi
ed referees in the area at game time to officiate and also have scorekeepers to keep up with statistics. Every spring, CRCE hold intramural basketball games in this area as well as some
volleyball games. At other facilities besides CRCE such as the ARC they also host golf, softball, flag football, soccer, kickball, racquetball, and volleyball Intramural games. If people wanted to take part in these activities there is an application process they would have to go through because there are only so many spots. She to
ld me Intramurals was most popular to the students and shows that even though these activities may seem very organized they still come out and have fun in their leisure time.
Personal Training:
The last area I checked out at CRCE was the workout area they had upstairs. From seeing this area I could tell why UIUC Campus Rec was one of the best in the country. They had a numerous amount of workout machines that helps people workout every muscle in the body one could think of. They had a whole area for free weights and bench press machines where a lot of people were and was probably the most popular spot. They had over 20 treadmills on this floor for people who wanted to do cardio workouts with televisions above about half of them. Surrounding all of the workout area was a huge track that was a couple miles long for people to jog, run, or just walk and relax. Campus Rec offers personal training to people who wanted to enhance their strength or just to get a good workout strategy going. I talked to one of the personal trainers on duty and he told me that he gives the trainee a specific diet to stick to and a workout plan designed just for the person.
Synopsis:
Campus Recreation gives students a chance to have leisure time through activity and also gives people opportunities to get a job and grown within the organization of Campus Recreation. From the number of people I saw inside of CRCE I could tell that working out or exercise in any form is a big form of leisure on the UIUC campus. Campus Recreation makes doing multiple activities fun instead of tedious, boring and tiring. The programs I detailed above are really only a fraction of the things that Campus Recreation has to offer students and people in the community. Campus Recreation is just not a workout facility you could go there and have fun in the pool area, play games in the numerous multi-purpose rooms, or just relax and watch TV in the lounge area that they have. It is very good to have alternate forms of leisure for college students especially that keeps them active because the first thing they want to do in their free time is waste energy. Campus Recreation helps take that energy that they waste and make them learn new sports and activities they will make them better off in life. If students on the UIUC campus have not checked out Campus Recreation and it's facilities like CRCE yet, then they could be missing out on the best experience they could have on a college campus.
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