Why Have a Student Rec. Center?

Campus Student Rec. Centers are prevalent on collage campuses all over the country they are often huge facilities that the universities spend millions on to build and maintain. The Wade King Student Rec. Center of Western Washington University is no exception, it is one of the campuses largest facilities, that includes features such a full sized pool, five sports courts, a rock climbing area, an indoor track as well as a full sized field and track turf field, not to mention its yoga studios and all the equipment that an ordinary gym would have. The University may have built this elaborate Rec. Center for many reasons, some of these reasons may be to keep up with the times and show that they support their students outside of the classes as well as in. By creating this Rec. Center, the University is trying to provide the students with the opportunity and resources to maintain a healthy life style while in college. As well as creating a positive environment that encourages all students to take part in beneficial recreation that will support their students in bettering themselves. But how do these collage Rec. Centers help better the universities community, and what about this place makes it a place that students want to go and be a part of?

The Wade King Rec. Center is a place on Western’s campus, where many students come to take part in an assortment of activities. But what makes this physical feature an important part of the campus are the people who occupy it. The Idea that a place is a more than just physical location but a social one as well, made meaningful by the people who occupy it and give it it’s purpose, is something many geographers, anthropologist, and social sociologist eco. One such scholar, Staeheli speaks about how “action in place” is what becomes the defining characteristics of the place in question (Staeheli 161). She uses women’s past roles in western society as an example of how social norms dictate what a place is. In Staeheli’s writing she gives the example of how women’s “place” in society was “within private places of the home, church, and neighborhood. This was identified as an appropriate location (materially and metaphorically) for them, given the social construction of gender roles and relationships at the time.” (Staeheli 160) These places where not only a physical domain in which women frequented but also social domains that they where placed. These social domains changed what the social status of the physical locations where. Staeheli gives this example to help explain that a places meaning is dictated by the social norms that are associated with it, generally give by the people of the society it is with in. This adds the dynamic that a place can change dramatically with time as the social environment changes around it.

Now if we take another look at Western’s Wade King Rec. Center and use this new idea of “place as a social action” as we investigate it, we could start to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the Center to the people and community that make it. So this time as we take a look in to the Rec. Center we want to focus more on who is using it and how, rather than what it’s physical form is.

As you enter into Wade King after signing in the first section too your right will be the rock climbing area that will be in use by multiple groups of people. These groups seem fairly diverse with a fairly even ratio of men to women and mix of people. It is fairly safe to assume that most of these people if asked would say they are in there to rock climb, but many seem to be there just as much to take part in social activity and have a good time with their friends. I say this because there is generally a group talking with one another while supporting one of it’s members as they climb the rout and when that friend is finished the others take their turn as the rest of the group continues to socialize. This is an example of just one of many of the area’s in the Rec. Center and each one of them has its own social dynamic that makes it a different place than the rest of the Center.

At first Glance what someone might say that the place is what determines the social atmosphere of the space. They would argue that different aspects of the activities that are prompted by the place dictate how the people taking part interact. However, if you where to sit and carefully watch two different groups people do the same activity you will see that how they socialize can be completely different from one another, changing the whole environment of the space. And example of this can be seen on the basketball courts. If you are to watch two different groups play basketball you may notice one group is intensely competing while the other may be casually talking and having conversations as they shoot hoops. They may be in the same physical location but each group has created its completely unique space through the why they play. The “social action” that takes place in a space is what determines what the place is to it’s occupants.

And as we analyze why the Rec. Center is a place that attracts so many students, we can say that it is because the Rec. Center has become a place that the community has created many different welcoming environments in, through socialization during sports. And it is in these different environments that we have found a community that draws us in, what ever the activity and environment may be. And ideally having this place a central location that is accessible to all, helps bring together many members of the university who can find “their place” which enhances the over all community.