The Mesquite Online News - Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Gym offers free membership and amenities

Kinesiology junior Terri Cruz helps kinesiology junior Alisson Garcia count for her workout Thursday in the Brooks City-Base Health and Wellness Center, 2860 Louis Bauer. Photo by Monica Lamadrid

By Lorie A. Hidalgo

Many students at this university are unaware of the valuable opportunity they have for them — a gym membership offered at no cost.

Communications senior Veronica De La Torre, who attends most of her classes at the Brooks-City Base Campus, is one of those students who was unaware of a gym located near campus.

“Where exactly is it?” she asked.

That’s the other issue. It’s a bit hard for students to find the gym and they are unaware of its location and amenities.

The gym is located at 2860 Louis Bauer, a mere 0.2 miles or the equivalent of a three-minute walk from the Brooks Campus.

Gym employee Suheily Valderrama said in the fall, 115 Texas A&M-San Antonio students used the gym. That number has slightly decreased over the past two years since the gym became available to both students and employees.

When asked who are the primary users of the gym, Valderrama said that women tend to be more active in the gym.

“Well I would like to say that men do, because it’s a gym, but in reality women use it more on a daily basis. I would say because of the Zumba classes, they’re pretty popular here,”  Valderrama said.

 The Brooks City-Base gym is equipped with the following items for students to have a successful workout session:

  • One large weight room;

  • One smaller weight room;

  • One room with elliptical machines and treadmills;

  • One cardio studio;

  • Two locker rooms, one for men and one for women;

  • One sauna.

Classes offered at the gym are Zumba, senior citizens aerobics and kickbox cardio.

Valderrama said the busiest days of operation are Monday and Wednesday, and the busiest time of the day tends to be when Zumba classes are being held. This could be because of the latest trend that Zumba has started; shedding pounds while dancing.The weight and equipment rooms are found on the first floor, along with the locker rooms and sauna. The cardio studio is located on the second floor.

“Zumba is one of the most popular (classes),”  Valderrama said.

The gym is advertised to students as a free service. However, the university service fee

for an in-resident undergraduate enrolled in 12 credit hours is $1,072.60. Because the service fee is not itemized, students are unable to determine whether a percentage of their fees is allocated to the gym.

In an earlier report, The Mesquite reported that Brooks Campus and the gym were leased for five years from Brooks Development Authority for $3,276,480.

Students can gain a gym membership by presenting a current A&M-San Antonio student ID and an account summary for the current semester to the reception desk in the front of the gym. Students are required to fill out a gym liability form in order to receive a membership.

While a large amount of students do not know about the gym, others like communications senior Erika Pacheco are making use of their membership and its convenient location.

Pacheco primarily uses the gym before her morning classes and when she has time to spare. Although she does not use all aspects of the gym, she does appreciate what she uses and what is available to students.

The gym hours are 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; and closed Sunday.

For more information, visit the Brooks City-Base Health and Wellness website.

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About the Author

Lorie Hidalgo
Lorie Hidalgo is a culture and sports writer for The Mesquite. She is a communications major with a passion for sports writing. Lorie attended both Northwest Vista and Palo Alto colleges. When attending Palo Alto, she was a writer for The Pulse, the online student newspaper. She received an A.A in New Media Communications from Northwest Vista in May 2013.

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