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.
For senior nursing major Lindsay Luckett, who spends most of her time on the Health Sciences Campus, decisions made by the Student Government Association feel distant.
"It's hard to relate to the things that they are doing on Belknap campus because I don't spend any time there," Luckett said.
Megan Steinberg isn't happy with having to pay the $250 next fall for the University of Louisville's mandatory meal plan. But for Steinberg, a leukemia survivor, the problem has less to do with the wallet and more to do with the body.
Steinberg, a senior sociology major, said the disease changed her life and has affected the way that she takes care of her body. She feels it is important that students be allowed to choose what they want to eat, especially for students who want to avoid eating certain foods that may contain harmful ingredients.
The gavel bangs and Student Government Association members scurry to their seats. It's Tuesday night and another meeting of the SGA student senate has begun.
The meeting will see reports from the top four executive officers, possibly an outside speaker and perhaps a student will take advantage of the time at the beginning of each meeting where a non-senator can speak for ten minutes about an important issue.
Unlikely, considering how few students seem to attend.
The Province has come to the University of Louisville, and it has brought a swimming pool, private bridge, theater, and a club house.
The Province has been planned and constructed for more than a year and in the fall of 2009, this new luxury student living space will be open to students. The new facility has not come without a cost, however. Stevenson Hall, built in 1959, may become a casualty residence hall.
Donning her multi-colored nursing attire, Chandra Blake, a single mother and full-time nursing assistant, begins to smile as she talks about the process of building her new home.
That home, located at 3119 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd., was constructed late this summer by the Habitat for Humanity of Metro Louisville, a non-profit organization that builds homes for needy families.
Students took in a new sight as they walked into the Student Activities Center this past Tuesday shaking off the chill of an early winter morning. What they saw and heard was more than a dozen University of Louisville musicians churning out smooth jazz for an appreciative audience in the SAC's new Jazzman's Café.
Donning her multi-colored nursing attire, Chandra Blake, a single mother and full-time nursing assistant, begins to smile as she talks about the process of building her new home.
That home, located at 3119 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd., was constructed late this summer by the Habitat for Humanity of Metro Louisville, a non-profit organization that builds homes for needy families.
The University of Louisville's Board of Trustees made their way through a busy meeting on Thursday, Nov. 13, with issues of Robert Felner, the mandatory meal plan controversy and possible budget cuts from the state weighing heavily on everyone's minds.
As Barack Obama took the stage in Chicago's Grant Park on Tuesday, Nov. 4, having just secured enough votes to be declared president, many citizens, both white and black, took to rejoicing in the streets or sat with their eyes glued to the television, anticipating Obama's first address in his new position of leadership. For many, it was a time to rejoice. For others, it was a moment to reflect on just how much America had changed.
Many in the University of Louisville community were no exception.
"I am inspired by [Obama's] great example," sophomore communication major Jaison Gardner said. "The tide is shifting in the right direction. He is definitely a black person to look up to."
Peeking through the six-inch crease between the elevator doors at Unitas Tower on Wednesday, freshman Tyler Turner waits patiently as a rescue crew attempts to keep the doors ajar.
With an ax in hand, a member of the Louisville Fire & Rescue squad grabs Turner's hand and helps him down out of the elevator and onto the first floor lobby of the freshman residence hall at the University of Louisville.
