By Brandon Davis
A common dilemma many students face when beginning their college careers out of high school is figuring out how to stay in shape while adjusting to a new schedule.
The Student Activities Center’s fitness center offers a variety of different activities to help keep students in shape, including an accessible weight room stocked with treadmills, free and machine weight systems and other cardiovascular equipment.
“In the Louisville Metropolitan area, this [SAC] is one of the best facilities around,” Ken Carey, gym employee, said. “The vast array of equipment and stuff that this facility has here along with the facilities at the Crawford and Humana, it can’t be beat.”
The SAC is open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and is free with an active student ID.
The SAC fitness center also provides five racquetball courts, two squash courts and complete locker room facilities along with four multi-purpose gym floors which are used for basketball, volleyball and badminton.
“It offers pretty much everything you want,” Greg Welsh, junior nursing major, said. “They have a gym, basketball courts, racquetball and they’re always open when you need them to be so it’s pretty convenient.”
For those looking to keep themselves occupied in some competitive form or just looking for a way to blow off some steam without all the sweat, the Cardinal Corner might be the answer. Also located in the SAC, the Cardinal Corner provides an assortment of free games for students to compete in, including pool, ping-pong, air hockey and foosball.
The Ralph Wright Natatorium, located on the corner of Warnock Ave. and Floyd St., is one for the newest facilities on campus and allows students a chance to swim in an Olympic-size pool. The Natatorium is also home to the U of L’s men’s and women’s swim teams and is complete with an eight-lane, 50 meter competition pool with depth ranging from four feet, six inches to 18 feet.
“It’s really a great facility,” Matt Blanford, graduate student and lifeguard, said. “It’s brand new and I think students are surprised when they find out that it’s even here and they’re allowed to use it for free.”
The Natatorium is open from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and is also open at various times on weekends.
The Humana Gym is another facility available for students looking to work out. Located on Bradley Ave. and Eastern Pkwy., the Humana Gym offers complete weight and cardiovascular rooms, dry heat saunas and gym floors are available when not used for club practices. Free for students, the Humana Gym is open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
U of L also offers a variety of different sports clubs and intramural league sports which provide students looking for a more structured plan to help maintain a healthy lifestyle, a solid solution while satisfying their competitive juices.
With clubs like badminton, fencing, gymnastics and many others, students are given the opportunity to compete while receiving a chance to learn a new sport or continuing to play a familiar one. There are also many different intramural league sports students can play including football, basketball, and soccer.
As a student, I expected to find decent food, especially considering that names such as Subway, Wendy's and Papa John's are familiar dining services.
However, in the mere five weeks on campus, I've experienced my share of bad food.
Veggie subs scarce in vegetables, broccoli and cheese baked potatoes that smell of vomit and deep dish pizza, topped with a thick layer of grease.
Traditionally, sexism meant judging a person based on their sex. Sexism is manifested in disenfranchisement and workplace discrimination.
However, since America has made tremendous strides in fixing this sexism (nearly 60 percent of college students are female), the definition of these terms must change to keep the term relevant.
Bruce Lunsford is the first in a series of Q&A with local politicians before the election.
Q: What political position are you running for and why?
-The Louisville Cardinal
A: I'm running for the United States Senate as a Democrat against 24 year incumbent by the name of Mitch McConnell.
Feel like skipping class?
It might be alright if you're lucky enough to have a professor who teaches with Powerpoint slides and posts them on Blackboard.
Blackboard can be anything from a helpful academic resource or something else to do, but sometimes it's not used effectively. And in some cases, replaces the professor entirely.
The melting pot is out, but Jesus is in. With John McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, being held as the figure of real life Americans, I see how many people could be overlooked in our nation.
Palin's Christian and family values are the root of her generalized characterization of "every American."
In an alternate universe, University of Louisville was closed Monday, Sept. 15.
Students, faculty and staff were able to make arrangements for babysitters, replenish food items, check on family members, clean their yards and students were not concerned with their professor's attendance policy.
But, in reality, U of L was open last Monday with evening classes cancelled or shortened.
Then Tuesday and Wednesday classes started and campus offices opened at 10 a.m.
This is backwards.
"I wish anarchy wasn't so flawed." This is the text message I received from my buddy Scotty at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday night.
And with that random bit of insight, I suddenly realized why I am so reluctantly conservative.
While I understand anarchism is not liberalism, they are similar in that their ideas appeal to that universal sense of hope and idealism.
John Lennon captured all of this hope and idealism in "Imagine."
No borders or divisions. No money or greed. No extortion and oppression. It's an idealist's manifesto.
As students' participation in Facebook grows, so does my curiosity as to why many of my straight classmates find entertainment in listing their relationship status as "In a Relationship with..." or "Married to..." another straight person of the same sex.
For those unfamiliar, Facebook is a free social networking Web site -- a sort of ‘Myspace.com' for the college crowd – where users can interact with other people in a particular city or school. Each user can edit a personal profile with as much about themselves as they wish, including relationship status and a link to the profile of a spouse or lover.
As you have likely heard this year's freshmen class is larger, smarter and sexier than you. They bring ACT scores that trump the national and state average and 50 more members than last year's class. The University of Louisville has approximately 2600 freshmen this year, 62 percent of whom live in campus residence halls which hold 3300 students.
After repeated years of incoming freshman class growth, it's easy to see why The Louisville Cardinal reported students living in study lounges.
"To you, the faculty, staff, students and friends of the University of Louisville – thank you. Thank you, not just for what you do for this university, but for your friendship and support. I treasure it. There will continue to be rough spots and tough issues, but together we can and will work through whatever faces us."
-University of Louisville President James Ramsey, State of the University Address, Sept. 9, 2008
