Unsigned: Charging fees to use the gym runs counter to college rhetoric about equity, inclusion

The Curse of the Corner Lot lives on.

For more than half a

century the seven-acre patch of highly-visible ground at the corner of Otay Lakes Road and East H Street has been a source of anguish, argument, silly proposals, corruption, threats of violence, political turnover, administrative bloodletting, false starts and – finally – a palatial athletic facility most students will never, ever be able to use.

Southwestern College’s two decades of misadventures on the lot has been like watching a child inflate a party balloon, then letting it go to watch it fly randomly here, there and everywhere until it putters out and falls limply to the ground. Now that this community has invested $57 million in a gym and a collection of pools comes the gut punch – SWC students have to pay extra to use them.

College leaders argue that the facilities should generate revenue and be self-supporting. That is a sound business model. The problem is, this is a college, not a corporation. We serve students and this community, not shareholders. There is a sizable difference.

President Dr. Kindred Murillo said repeatedly during the center’s opening press conference that “this center is for the students.” Dean of Athletics Jim Spillers said the Wellness and Aquatics Center will “create the most opportunities possible for our students.”

What it seems they meant was “this center is for students with lots of money who can pay membership fees.”

Charging fees almost automatically cuts away four out of every five students. About 80 percent of SWC students rely on financial aid. That means only about 3,400 of SWC’s 17,000 students are not on federal financial aid and many of those are on other forms of assistance for food, housing and healthcare. Most colleges, two-year and four-year alike, do not make students pay for access to their fitness centers because they know exercise is good for learning (stimulates growth of dendrites in the brain), stress management (alleviates depression, PTSD and inflammation) and health (counters obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis).

Exercise is cost-effective. Students who exercise are healthier. Healthy people are cheaper to maintain that stressed and sick ones. Our enlightened college president knows this and is a regular exerciser.

Low-income Americans are the sickest. They are disproportionately stressed, eat badly, spend hours on awful public transportation and in soul-sucking jobs at the bottom of the food chain. We have less control of our lives, less access to medical care, and the most stress and nutrition-based ailments. Exercise is the magic medicine when we have the time and access.

SWC does so many things well, or at least tries to. We have legal services for undocumented students, showers for homeless students and twice-weekly access to a food pantry. We applaud our college for being socially aware of the problems of its students face, but it is no secret that poor health typically bites at the heels of lower-income individuals. Students who cannot afford three meals a day – let alone heathy options – do not have money for a fancy gym. Abraham Maslow was right, food and shelter come before gym membership.

SWC’s betrayal of its low-income clientele is starkly highlighted by the fact that most other California community colleges and universities have free gyms and exercise centers that are much nicer and better equipped than ours. While visiting UC and CSU campuses we found gyms with indoor soccer, relaxing pools, shock-reducing running tracks, rock climbing walls and bountiful intermural sports opportunities of all types. SWC, as it often does, has settled for less.

This is a train wreck that does not have to happen. We would like to encourage our talented and athletic college president to load up on endorphins on her treadmill, get her blood flowing to her brain and have a change of heart. It is not too late to change course and do the right thing. Open the gym to our community’s most stressed, lowest-income and most optimistic people – the students of Southwestern College.

You can do it – no sweat.