With budget stretched, personal training canceled

Editor's note: This story has been edited to reflect that no more than four participants, not necessarily Seattle University students, were in the personal training program at one time. Also, the story has been edited to reflect that Kristen Cristopher teaches a personal training certification class, not a personal training class. We regret the errors.

As athletic students return to Seattle University this quarter they will find a number of newer and stronger activities available, but a few will be confronted with the loss of a long-running program.

The personal training program—an opportunity available to Seattle U students for more than a decade—was temporarily cancelled for the summer in light of low student involvement and budgetary concerns. As the new quarter approached, Recreational Sports decided to axe the service altogether, according to former trainer Carol Lorenz.

Lorenz, who still works part-time for the university's leisure education program, had been employed in her previous position for 15 years when Strength and Fitness Coordinator Kristen Christopher informed her in the mid-summer that her position would not be reinstated after the break.

"The cost was $50 per hour, $30 per half hour, and so that became cost ineffective for the students," Christopher said, adding that the program was being subsidized by Rec Sports because it had to pay the instructor.

The program—which according to Christopher enrolled no more than four participants at any given time during the 2008-2009 school year—was hardly the most popular offered in the Connolly Center, which sees about 1,200 visitors daily according to card-readers.
However, in Lorenz's opinion, the services it rendered were still necessary for a Division I university.

"There's a lot of people who […] still have health and fitness goals that they want to achieve," she said. "Without a coach to steer them in the right direction they maybe don't have that now."

Christopher also emphasized the effect of the cut on students whose fitness needs were less well suited for group activities.

Group fitness has been the overwhelming focus of Rec Sports this year, with the hiring of a full-time Outdoor Activities and Recreation director and an increase in the number of classes offered by the department. This has been a mostly positive transition, Christopher explained, citing the roughly 1,150 students who participate in intramural sports at Seattle University and the 300 involved in group classes each quarter.

"Most of the feedback we receive is positive," Christopher said. "Students enjoy the fitness pass, which is for all the group exercise programs, and enrollment is up in the IM sports programming, which leads me to believe that it is being more well received."

She summarized the changes at Connolly during her three-year history at Seattle U as an increase in the quality of the program, increase in the opportunities, as well as the increase in student enrollment.

This perspective was confirmed by Connolly Facilities Supervisor Theresa Leigh, an undergraduate student at Seattle University whose post behind the center's front desk has overseen both consistent and positive growth in her nearly two years with the program.

"[It's] mainly just a place where you can work out, do your thing, and de-stress," Leigh said. "I haven't heard any negative comments at all […] It's really just a space for everyone."

Another reason for this shift in student preference could be fiscal, Lorenz suggested. According to the former trainer, enrollment in the personal fitness program began to decline during fall 2008, a reflection of trends across the industry and a likely result of the poor economy.

Instead, students are now opting in greater numbers for low-cost quarterly fitness passes, which at $35 a quarter seems like the greater bargain. However, as the fiscal tides turn, both Lorenz, who continues to market her services to the public as an independent trainer, and Christopher would like to see the program return, but it will come with several big changes.

Christopher, who teaches a personal training certification course at Seattle U, hopes to bring the program back larger and with lower costs by employing and certifying student trainers to lead a personal training program.

"It's definitely going to be reinstated," Christopher said. "It's just going to be changed to make it more cost-allowable for the students [and] to hire younger trainers to give them experience. It'll be a great relationship to have, to have a bigger personal training program."

Seamus may be reached at smckeon@su-spectator.com.