UC Caps Grants to House Gyms

A move by the Undergraduate Council meant to even out funding for House gyms has riled some campus fitness fanatics.

Four Houses—Adams, Kirkland, Leverett and Pforzheimer—took advantage of the council’s relatively late decision to fund the gyms last spring, with each receiving $1,000 allotments.

But this semester the council capped gym grants at $333 for those Houses, while the remaining Houses are eligible to receive a maximum of $1,333 for renovations to their workout space—levelling out the total gym funding for which each House is eligible to apply.

Council member Justin R. Chapa ’04, a resident of Pforzheimer, spoke in favor of the funding shift at Sunday’s council meeting, but said that he received many angry e-mails from other residents of his House.

“Houses that got money made purchases earlier in the semester and we retroactively compensated them. It was more coincidence than them being on the ball,” Chapa said.

But some students said they feel that the council’s action is equivalent to penalizing Houses that took advantage of the gym grant last semester.

“I don’t really think its fair,” said Ryan G. White ’04, a Pforzheimer resident who said he works out in the House’s gym everyday. “It doesn’t make sense to not have funding for Houses that showed initiative.”

And at least one council member agreed that students of the four Houses are being cheated of the funding that they deserve.

“I think they should be angry,” said Finance Committee Chair Joshua A. Barro ’04, who is a resident of Adams House. “We don’t do this with other funding.”

Other Adams House residents, though, said they did not think that the council’s decision was unfair.

“Why should we have twice the amount of stuff? This keeps everyone on an equal plane,” Matt J. Corriel ’05 said.

Naomi O. Hausman ’04, another Adams House resident, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Adams certainly doesn’t have a shortage of stuff. We may not have the best gym, but look at our dining hall. It just got redone again,” she said.

Last spring, the council made $1,000 available to each House to buy new equipment for their gyms because of what they deemed to be the poor state of the Malkin Athletic Center.

“We saw it as an interim solution before the long-term renovation of the MAC,” Barro said.

—Staff Writer Ebonie D. Hazle can be reached at hazle@fas.harvard.edu.