Campus Gym May Close for Summer

Students who rely on recreational facilities at the Malkin Athletic Center during the summer should expect long wait times for machines, older equipment, fewer classes, and overcrowding.

According to athletic department officials who spoke to The Crimson on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, the MAC will remain closed during the summer, leaving students with two smaller, less centrally-located facilities: Hemenway Gymnasium near the Law School and the Murr Center, situated across the Charles River by the athletic fields.

As part of the University’s sweeping cost-cutting measures, the initiative aims to slash expenses in the athletic department’s budget. But athletic administrators said the move would also cut back on the services that are usually provided by the MAC during the summer—such as an Olympic-sized pool and a host of specialty classes like salsa dancing.

In Hemenway and the Murr Center, “there’s no pool, there are way older machines as far as cardio equipment goes, and equipment will probably break faster,” one athletic official said.

While some administrators said they were “99.99 percent certain” the MAC would close its doors to Harvard affiliates from June to August, others stressed that no final decision has been made.

“I don’t think it’s an appropriate time to deal with hypotheticals,” associate athletic director Jeremy L. Gibson said. “We’re exploring a number of different ways to address the financial situation.”

Athletic officials noted that the MAC—“the University’s primary recreation facility,” according to its Web site—is a “popular” facility for Harvard students who stay in Cambridge during June, July, and August.

“Given how many students are on campus during the summer, they should really keep the MAC open,” said Jennifer J. Lee ’10, who said she frequented the MAC weekly last summer and had planned to again this summer.

“I wish there were a way that we could petition the University, but that’s obviously not possible,” she added.

Since most MAC employees are undergraduates—the majority of whom live off campus during the summer—athletic officials said they do not anticipate firing student workers. Instead, they said they will significantly reduce the number of temporary workers hired for the summer.

Athletic administrators alluded to this year’s disorderly and drawn out process to finalize the department’s budget. Though budgets are typically submitted early in the spring, the athletic department—like the academic departments within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and undergraduate Houses—is still without a fiscal plan for next year.

One administrator added that several budgets have been submitted to University Hall, but as of yesterday, all have been rejected.

“We want to best serve our members,” said Wendy Healy, area manager of the MAC and Hemenway, adding that when the administration wants to publicly disclose a final decision, “we will get the word out.”

—Staff writer Ahmed N. Mabruk can be reached at amabruk@fas.harvard.edu.