Equipment Woes Vex Quad Athletes

When the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center (QRAC) reopened this fall, much of the gym’s equipment was missing.

Pforzheimer House Superintendant Jim Gallivan said that “in September, there was a problem locating the equipment, but two weeks into the school year, it was found in a Malden warehouse and now all of it is back.”

Still, a Cabot House intramural representative, Evie Spanos ’06, said that “intramural games have been regularly cancelled or delayed at the QRAC because of equipment problems.”

Spanos said she had to drive to the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) to replace the Quad facility’s one flat volleyball.

The manager of Recreational Services in the Athletic Department, Jake Olkkola, said that the situation would change soon.

“I have a plan right now to get new equipment up to the QRAC for many different sports,” he said. “Everything will be replenished.”

The renovated QRAC reopened last month with a new state-of-the-art 4,100-square-foot dance studio—but with one fewer basketball court and a reconfigured cardiovascular exercise area. The dance studio was opened to replace the Rieman Center for Dance, which was reclaimed by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study earlier this year.

Elizabeth Randall, capitol projects manager at the Office of Physical Resources, said, “The school weighed losing a basketball court to the benefits of gaining a great new dance facility, and because of the requirements of high ceilings for a dance theater, the QRAC gym was one of our only options.”

Quadlings have expressed mixed reactions to the space changes.

Pforzheimer anthropology concentrator Eric D. Lopez ’07 said, “Nothing has been unfairly sacrificed. The equipment seems to be the same, and the need for two gyms, which were under-used, does not match the need for a real dance center. The gym has not seemed overly busy so far.”

But Spanos disagreed.

“It depends on the time, but usually in the afternoon the gym can be very cramped,” she said. “Yesterday there were two separate groups playing basketball and three people throwing a softball, so it was really difficult to practice volleyball.”

Loretta A. Maludzinski ’06, a Currier House resident who has worked as a front desk attendant at the QRAC for three years, said, “People seem to be sharing the gym well, but the new cardiovascular space feels cramped. There used to be windows by the treadmills and bikes that let people look into the gym, but now, most people are up against a wall. Overall, people’s comments have not been positive.”

However, Maludzinski did stress that the QRAC has improved since she began working at the facility in 2003.

“The equipment used to be enormous blue machines from the 70s that looked like torture chambers,” she said. “We are far from that today.”