Comment on Campus Recreation

Thank you for the comment on Katie. We will get it to her supervisor so she can be officially thanked.

Intersession Access:  If you purchased a student summer membership or took classes during either summer session, you have access during Intersession. If you are student returning to campus during Intersession, you will have access starting on August 15. That is the date when student i-cards will be activated.

I'm having some difficulty interpreting who has access to the ARC during the time period deemed intersession.
Is that within the summer plan or does a full time student, not taking summer courses have access to the facilities?
if neither, is there a pass being sold for now until the school year starts? if so, how much?

I apologize if this information is
readily available on your site
and i've over looked it,
Thank you.

Thank you for the positive comments regarding our staff member, Ms. Anthony. Our staff strives to show good customer service at all times, but it can be difficult to get everyone on the same page with over 700 student employees. We appreciate hearing the good things since we hear the bad a lot. We will be recognizing Ms. Anthony for sure for her outstanding performance and your positive experience.  Thanks for the note!

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a recent graduate of the University of Illinois and have been a member of Campus Recreation and a frequent user of both the ARC and CRCE facilities for the past 4 years. Although my experiences at both of these facilities have always been positive, I am happy to report that my most recent encounter with one of your employees, Ashley Anthony, has been a wonderful reassurance of the quality of service that Campus Rec provides for members of the U of I community. 

Ms. Anthony's outstanding customer service proved to me that the member fees that I pay to Campus Rec are well worth the price. Even though I had personally considered paying a lower fee at Cardinal Fitness in Urbana, I admit now that  I would be hard-pressed to find a similar or competitive level of committment to excellence elsewhere.

Thank you so much for your time and for maintaining high standards for employing staff members who are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of their patrons.

I hope that Ms. Anthony is given the appropriate recognition for her positive attitude and exemplary customer relations and I truly hope that she is given opportunities to mentor the same work ethic among the rest of your staff. You are all very lucky to have her.

Sincerely and with Gratitude,

Jules

In regards to the Comment Board improvements:

(1) Have a system set up so that there are two more email responses when someone submits a comment: 

We will try our best to approve and post a reply within 2 weeks. Sometimes, the answer is not available to us as it lies in another area of the University. ie: the hole in the ground outside of the ARC. It wasn't on our property, it was F&S, and they didn't get us a response back until a month later and by that time the whole was filled so we didn't post the comment.

It will be up to the poster to check the board for a reply. The system is not set up to send out automatic e-mails stating that a comment has been posted. We will not spend money and time in developing this either. This is not a perfect system, but it fits our needs and is free through the University.

 (2) Have the old comments appear in reverse chronological order. It is a bit tiresome to have to scroll through comments over two years old to see if your recent request has been answered.

Our comment board is created using a Web Services program. At this time, this abilility is not available. We will look into it.

(3) Delete old comments that are no longer applicable. This does not mean I am suggesting you delete all the older comments since some are still relevant (e.g. questions about body image or parking policies), just the inapplicable ones.

We will look at doing this more often. However, what is applicable to one person may not be to another so please be assured that we are using our best judgement.

Matthew - Thank you for your comment. 

The UIN look up option is in place for a convenience factor for situations such as yours when you forget your icard.  This options is a courtesy to any member at a limit of two occurrences for several reasons. 

The written policy for entry into any Campus Recreation facility states, “It is required that University of Illinois students and all Campus Recreation members prove their membership by presenting a valid UIUC i-card to secure services at Campus Recreation facilities. Campus Recreation is fully authorized to deny entrance to its facilities without possession of a valid UIUC i-card. Possession of an i-card does not guarantee valid membership with Campus Rec.” 

This can be found on our website at this link provided: http://www.campusrec.illinois.edu/membership/policies/mem_idCard.html or in our policies and procedures manual which is also posted online at this link provided: http://www.campusrec.illinois.edu/membership/docs/policies_handbook.pdf

It is policy of the University of Illinois that any individual within a University of Illinois facility or on University of Illinois property carry their icard with them at all times.  The Campus Recreation facilities are no exception to that policy.  Having the icard with you is required to enter and prove your membership.  It is only by courtesy that we permit you to “forget” your icard twice as that is still against University of Illinois policy to be on University of Illinois premises without a valid icard.  We only permit this twice because we do not and should not condone the violation of the students or members who do not have their icard with them on University of Illinois property.  We understand that once a student is outside of dorm life they only really need their icard to access Campus Rec.  That being understood we do not want to enable these individuals to continue to just be looked up, we encourage them to follow proper University of Illinois procedures to go and have their icard replaced. 

Another primary reason for this policy is for security purposes.  Each time someone swipes their card it is to register their access and that they are in the facility.  This is to ensure that you as the student and user are in a safe environment ensuring those not granted access nor those that are not affiliated with the University of Illinois can enter.  Another unfortunate reality is that if there should be a major crisis that takes place within our facility other individuals on campus should be able to identify who is in our building at that time based on the card swipe data.  If everyone just was “looked up” they would not know who was currently or recently in the facility. 

Obviously, there is also a time factor for the staff who spend their shift looking up individuals but that is not the primary reason behind the policy.  We are committed to customer service and that is why we provide the two time look up.  I think there might have been a misunderstanding yesterday when speaking with Jeremy when he stated “we just started enforcing the rule.”  He would have been speaking of the two week period that ended on January 31. During this time we permitted individuals in the facility who were in possession of their icard but it did not show they had access based on their class registration (service fee).  This was only in place as a customer service initiative to allow students who were changing their registration around or grad students who were not registered yet to continue to have access to the facility until they worked out their schedule.  At all times, however, they were required to still have their icard with them.

We appreciate your comments and please know that we do investigate adjusting policies based on comments and we do take them to the appropriate channels to be investigated.  However, this policy is in place for very specific reasons and is not something that we will be able to adjust or remove any time in the near future. 

Campus Recreation Management,

My name is Matthew Graziano, and I am currently a sophomore at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. I attend the Arc very frequently, and I am just starting to attend CRCE occasionally. Prior to today, I have not had any issues with policy or equipment.  However, today I unknowingly left my I-card at my apartment on my way to the gym, and I was denied access to the gym because I had forgotten my I-card on 2 prior occasions.  Jeremy, the employee who politely asked me to leave, did not provide a reasonable explanation for the rule except that "We [CRCE staff] just started enforcing the rule".  

I am sending this email to express my profound disapproval of this policy.  My distaste of this rule stems from the following: (1) it is common business practice to look up members in the system without limit if they forget their membership card, (2) students pay a large sum to attend the university and the gym, and (3) there are no strong arguments supporting the policy.

First and foremost, almost any other business or organization that requires a membership card for entry or to reap benefits of a program will happily, without limit, look up customers in their system to help alleviate the customer’s error.  Grocery stores such as Jewel, Dominick's and Sam's Club, gyms such as Fitness 19 and Lifetime, and general stores such as Office Max, Staples, and Bed Bath and Beyond all go out of their way to help their customers by looking their customer's membership cards.  It is a custom practice of business to assist their members and ensure they have a positive experience.  At the Arc and CRCE, however, this is not the case, and I saw first hand a clear disregard for customer satisfaction. I have never heard of any successful business that deliberately limits the number of times they are willing to assist their customers with such a minor task.  In my humble opinion, I believe a reorganization of priorities is in order. 

Students at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign pay, depending on major, pay upwards of $15000 per year on tuition and fees to get a stellar education.  Included in the tuition and fees is a charge of $458 ($229 per semester) for a "UIUC Health Service Fee" which gives students access to the Arc and CRCE.  This fee, unfortunately, is automatic upon entry into the school.  Thus, the university, in a sense, has a monopoly in terms of health facilities (unless of course someone is willing to spend extra money to gain membership at another gym).  If, for example, one semester 1000 less people utilized the gym, any normal business would be in panic because they are likely losing money.  On the other hand, the UIUC health facilities do not feel the same monetary pressure, as they are guaranteed funds regardless of how many students actually utilize the gym.  This does not warrant bad business practice.  I only ask that you ensure you take into consideration the repercussions of your policies when you implement them.  Every student at this school pays a tremendous amount of money to attend this school, and that alone warrants fair practice. 

Lastly, there are only two reasonable expectations, though weak, I can think of for why this rule was implemented: it takes time to look people up in the system and you want to ensure non-members are not getting into the gym.  When there are lines of students attempting to check out basketballs, racquetball racquets, and volleyballs, I can understand why workers would not want to deal with looking someone up in the system.  Despite that, I still go back to my customer service argument.  Customer service is not about 'doing what the employee wants to do'; rather, it is about making the experience of the customer the best it can be.  If that means going out of ones way to look up someone’s membership card, then so be it.  Employees could simply ask the member without their membership card until they have handled the other members waiting to get equipment.  Additionally, asking for another form of ID, which I happily provided, successfully deters non-members from gaining access into the gym.  

When I arrived at the gym, there was no one in line waiting in the gym, and there were 3 staff members (including Jeremy, the one who 'assisted' me) at the "member services" station standing by.  In other words, none of them were busy.  Additionally, it took no more than 2 minutes to take my drivers license, ask my UIN, and look me up in the system.  Thus, I cannot strongly buy into the argument that it takes too long.  If I have been a confirmed member of the gym and/or student of the University, what is the rational for not allowing me into the gym?

Overall, I take pride in attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and I was appalled when I experienced such disregard of customer service.  I fully acknowledge that this situation could have been avoided had I simply remembered to bring my I-card, but, lets face it, we are all only human and make mistakes.  The great businesses help to fix those errors.  The Campus Recreation Facilities are excellent, but, like anything, there is always room for improvement.

            I hope you take into consideration my remarks in future policy making, and thank you very much for your time.

Best regards,

Matthew Graziano

In response to the parking permit question:

Campus Recreation has no control over the parking areas around the facilities. This is all handled through Parking Services on campus. All Campus Recreation staff must purchase a parking pass like everyone else on campus. Budgetarily, it is not feasible to purchase parking passes for our members. If you want a parking pass by the ARC, you would have to purchase it on your own through Parking Services.

In response to the babysitting questions that have arisen:

We’ve evaluated the option of short-term babysitting in the past and will continue to evaluate whether this is feasible in the future, now that more space is available within our facilities. We appreciate the inquiries and will take them under advisement.

Can you issue a parking permit tag for all the members? The stress caused by the anxiety created by the worries about the parking on campus, can be eliminated and we will have a total benefit of exercising.

I think that is a great idea about daycare after our working hours and on the weekends. I know the other gyms in town offer this service. It makes it a lot easier to go to the gym if we have someone to watch our children. Thanks for listening.

Hi  I  have been a faculty member since 2004 and I was wondering if  you haver ever thought about having some kind daycare facility for members with kids maybe only after working hours or on weekends but me and my family think this would be a great idea . Thanks for listening Tony Hubbard