Organisation - April 29, 2010

Go-ahead for Sports Centre expansion

Fitness area at the Bongerd will double in size. USB is being allocated hours for an extra instructor.

It’s busy...
The Executive Board is enabling the University Sports Centre (USB) in Wageningen to respond to the growing demand for sports facilities. Early February, student sports foundation Thymos alerted the Executive Board to the lack of room at the Bongerd. After doing its sums, the Board decided in mid April to invest nearly nine hundred thousand euros in the USB University Sports Centre. Which pleased Henri ten Klooster, the head of USB. 'We were jam-packed. That was not surprising given the increase in the number of students', says Ten Klooster.  'And there has been a change in practice when it comes to sport and fitness. These days students don't just join a club, they will also attend fitness sessions and go on to take a class they like the look of.'
That is why the fitness area is getting an additional four hundred square metres, which will double its size. It is still unclear what the new building will look like and when it will be ready. That depends partly on whether a zoning plan change is required.
In addition, enough additional instructor hours are being made available for a full-time job to serve unaffiliated users of the sports centre. USB also intends making more use of the fitness area itself. Ten Klooster: 'We see that students in senior years, for example, are definitely interested in using the sports facilities during working hours.'