While masks and worries for COVID-19 may return to the University of Idaho campus as the Delta variant rolls through Idaho, more normalcy is expected for the Student Recreation Center.
Currently, all equipment is back in place and operational, Assistant Director of Programs Ben Sturz said. Almost all spaces in the SRC are open and operational excluding the saunas, which Sturz said was not likely to change soon.
This is a stark difference from how the SRC operated last fall.
When COVID-19 first hit, all university facilities, including the SRC, shut down and wouldn’t open their doors again until the summer of 2020. When they opened back up, the building operations and programs were heavily modified by COVID-19 safety protocols.
According to Sturz, the SRC had to modify its hours, spaces and every program was inflicted with challenges from it.
The building had to shut down periodically for cleaning time, and much of the equipment was either relocated or removed to comply with social distancing policies.
“People had to register for specific hours at machines even because we did not know the specifics of how COVID spread,” Sturz said.
Sturz said some locations were also made to be used for other functions like vaccinations and COVID-19 testing, which impacted programs like intramural sports by taking over the spaces where they normally operated.
Despite the modifications and general chaos of last year, there was still a surprising amount of interest in programs.
Trevor Fulton, the Director of Outdoor Programs at the SRC, said with COVID-19 worries being more focused on the indoors, people were interested in going out.
“We had more interest [in outdoor programs] than we have ever had,” Fulton said.
Some programs in high demand were outdoor education, certificates and safety courses, according to Fulton. Fulton said he expected this year to be busy as well.
This year the SRC intends to open with its pre-COVID hours, according to Sturz.
“People can look forward to having a broader spectrum of facility access with no shutdown times, even though we’ll be maintaining our sanitization and cleaning policies.”
The only big difference from normalcy, Sturz said, was masks.
“We all understand that wearing masks and wearing masks appropriately over your mouth and nose is and can be challenging when you’re being active,” Sturz said. “We’d like to encourage everyone to follow the policies about wearing masks appropriately so we can keep these spaces fully active as best we can.”
While UI’s official COVID-19 protocols state masks are only required in university buildings, the outdoor program will still be taking precautions this year, like not packing every vehicle with people on trips, Fulton said.
“Depending on students’ desire to participate with a mask on, I anticipate things will increase, Sturz said. “I wouldn’t say for sure it’s a guarantee because everything is still impacted by COVID, but I’m always optimistic.”
Cody Roberts can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter @CodyRobReports