Marquette Student Government held walk-throughs to evaluate campus practice spaces April 15.
Forty-five different clubs on campus utilize the practice space in Humphrey Hall and Practice Space East, located in Campus Town East. The spaces have been utilized since 2010 and 2007, respectively.
The biggest users are culture, dance and martial arts groups, along with some club sports. Reservations are made on a first come first served basis and some groups book the spaces up to a year in advance.
Some of the discussed renovations would be installing water fountains and providing new mirrors and mats. As of now, there are no mirrors in the Humphrey Hall practice space and the ones in Practice Space East are distorted and leaning against the wall.
Danny Kaniyaly, captain of Mazaa Bollywood Dance and a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences said the overall experience with the practice spaces is satisfactory, but there are improvements that could be made.
“To me, an ideal practice space for a dance team like ours would be just like a dance studio – one with large, open space, mirrors all around the room, high ceilings and nearby water fountains,” Kaniyaly said in an email. “With the practice spaces that we have, they may have some of these qualities, but none of these spaces consist of all four.”
Many dance groups who use the space voiced similar concerns. To address this issue, MUSG proposed a resolution to allocate a total of $11,000 to install two water bottle filling stations and mirrors in Humphrey Hall and Practice Space East practice spaces. They will vote on the resolution next week.
Annette Conrad, associate director of the Alumni Memorial Union, is responsible for coordinating the reservations. She noted it is sometimes hard to accommodate everyone due to the high number of clubs and limited space. However, she said it is helpful that groups are good about keeping in contact and communicating with her.
“Access can be a challenge just because of the sheer number of people,” Conrad said.
Both Pure Dance and Club Crew said the limited amount of space was an issue.
“Adding more spaces on campus to practice would improve how competitive it is to find space amongst the performing arts organizations,” said Pure Dance Team Co-President Kelsey Lagerman, a senior in the College of Business Administration.
Ricky Kaufmann, a junior in the College of Communication and Public Relations Chair for the Crew team, said sharing the space with various other clubs is difficult. He also mentioned facilities had limited storage space.
Kaufmann said since equipment cannot be stored in either practice space, they have to set it up each time the team wants to use it, which takes away from practice time.
This past semester MUSG held a referendum to implement a $100 fee to pay for a new recreation and wellness center.
The new facility was proposed because MUSG conducted a feasibility study on campus recreational facilities in 2010. The study found that Marquette’s average amount of recreational space per student to be 6.92 square feet. The national average is 10-12 square feet per student.
30 percent of eligible students voted and 74 percent of them were in favor of the new fee and 26 percent opposed.
Former MUSG President Zack Wallace said the referendum received a positive response from students.
“I think students know and understand the needs we have on campus regarding rec and wellness space and resources. They also realize that the most effective way to achieve the quality level of resources our community deserves,” Wallace said.
Representatives from seven organizations planned to attend the event, but none of them showed. AMU Director Neal Wucherer, who coordinated the tour with MUSG, said there were representatives from martial arts groups the last two walk-throughs.
Wucherer said he encourages student organizations to reach out to him or their MUSG representative if they have questions about practice spaces.
