Old people at Campus gym

TTH wrote:

otter wrote:

Sure, I will keep digging uncovering your discriminatory views. What other group/s are you uncomfortable being around and would like to eliminate rights for?

Believe it or not, not all of us old guys are checking out younger women or creeping around locker rooms and there are plenty of creepy guys of college age.

I'm not uncomfortable at all being around old guys or, better said, those beyond the age at which I should feel comfortable using facilities meant for college students. I should know. I'm one of them old guys. I'm also self aware enough not to wander into a dance club which is geared towards that same age group even though my wife and I still go out to clubs. However we're self aware enough to head for places which we fit in.

The shovel is yours.

You and your wife analyze all of the places you fit in before going there? I feel bad for you living that way. Must be horrible being self aware.

I don’t want the shovel because clearly you need to use it. Might as well start digging your graves now. Soon you will fit in nowhere else.

Sprintgeezer's the name, being cool is the game. wrote:

Sprintgeezer wrote:

I caught 3 girls checking me out. I’ve still got it...

Yes, and no:

https://justpaste.it/5d899

Sprintgeezer looks pretty good considering there was speculation a couple of years ago that he may be dead.

It’s somewhat different. I used to be able to train on the track when there were no students around—then if they arrived I would leave.

Then the coach introduced himself because he had been watching from inside. He invited me to practice with them whenever, because I was decently fast and he felt I could help the team somehow.

That evolved into me being able to do as I wished when I wished, including using all the equipment. As I got older and slower, I stayed well out of the way of the team (even during posted public hours), and went in the evenings when the team wasn’t around, and at midday when school wasn’t in session, because there was never anyone around, at all—except when our loosely-knit post-collegiate training group was there (mostly recent grads, but also an 80+ record holder).

I was given privileges same as some other post-collegians because I was respectful and considerate, and it was easy to be so because as I said much of the time there was nobody on the track—unlike a campus gym, unless it opens at 5am.

I have seen the new facility a few times, and most of the time there is nobody on it, nor will there ever be, just like the old facility. This does not present any conflict whatsoever, I will never affect the students.

I have accepted the coach’s decree, but he’s only a coach, and might not know the entire situation with respect to facility use. I will use the facility if I am actually allowed, but not when students are on it, and certainly not during those times at which it is closed due to practice.

And if it turns out that I can’t use the track no matter what, I may try to get public hours re-instated, as they have never before affected student athletes.

So not the same situation. And if it ever turned out that there were students on it all the time, I would go elsewhere. Simple as that.

BTW there is no muni track where I am—if there was, I would go.

There are other colleges that open their tracks to the public, but a bit farther away. If I go there, I won’t go when students are on the track, same as before.

Also, no muni track is ridiculous. Where I live in europe, they are everywhere. I train right beside the Eiffel tower, and also right on the Mediterranean seashore.

I have planned on lobbying the city for a track facility, but as long as there were options, I didn’t. Now, maybe, although I may soon move from here almost entirely. I have access to the mayor, and he used to be a decent national runner, and it might be an easy political sell if placed in an underserved area of the city. Problem is that it would likely need to go through the parks board instead, where I have no advantage at all.

I'm "older" (wouldn't want to say I'm an "old guy" at 38) and am on staff at a university. We get free access to the university's gym, so I take advantage of that as many faculty and staff members do.

You know why? Because it's the University's gym. It's not the "student's" gym.

The term "university" comes from a longer Latin term (universitas magistrorum et scholarium) which means "a community of teachers and scholars." It does not mean "a large playground for self-entitled kids."

Even if people choose to join the university gym and they aren't currently affiliated with the university: so be it.

Now, if you had a private "student lounge" or "student gym" and some older people were creeping around, then you'd have a point.

But that's not the case. So you don't.

Now go back to playing Fortnite or scrolling through Instagram or feigning offense at something that Kevin Hart tweeted 10 years ago...or whatever makes you whiny brats happy these days.

Are students generally allowed in the faculty club/ faculty lounge in any capacity other than servers?

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Are students generally allowed in the faculty club/ faculty lounge in any capacity other than servers?

Why do you ask a question about something he already addressed? He said he wouldn't go into the "student club". It is a gym for members of the University, not the student gym. If someone hates old people maybe they should join a team and then then can go to the athletes only gym instead of the gym with the rest of the community. Or maybe they suck too much to make the team and they are taking their bitterness out on old people.

A few things come to mind:

If you are teaching staff with an attitude like that toward students, you should be fired. Even as other staff, your hostility toward students would not be desirable, and you should be elsewhere.

At 38, you are considered old by many 18-24-year-old’s, no matter how you think of yourself.

That ship that your archaic narrow definition was on, sailed long ago. BTW who exactly are the teachers teaching?

Also, I love the age-stereotyping, classic. And natural. :). Next probably comes the age-discriminating justification of the faculty club, as one of qualification rather than age...only no 18-22-year-old’s belong. De facto age discrimination.

But, as I said, not all institutions are the same.

otter wrote:

You and your wife analyze all of the places you fit in before going there? I feel bad for you living that way. Must be horrible being self aware.

It's great. I spend no time getting bent out of shape about those types of issues. I recognize them.

Let’s not forget the mature student lounge...sorry, now referred to as “adult learners” and the “non-traditional student” lounge.

Age discrimination.

I brought up the faculty lounge because the poster is making an appeal to authority argument—that is to say, if the U sanctions it, it’s OK. This adherence for selfish purposes to the minimum legal standard is no longer sufficient to maintain a civil society, and is lazy and irresponsible.

The rules are created by the powerful—in this case, public-sector unions, and faculty who have cross-appointments to administrative and managerial positions—for the benefit of the powerful. The students get left behind, which is why many now receive a ridiculously crap “education “, and pay increasingly unpayable amounts for it, in an environment where with the full sanction of government via loan guarantees , a degree has become essential.

It is the students who are getting the shaft, except for a privileged few, because they have neither real market options, nor political power.

I am not saying that colleges should be controlled by students, but they should be shown consideration when something is properly their element. I consider their gym their element, just the same as their bars, if they have them.

IMO in some situations kids need to be left to themselves without interference, so that they can make their own mistakes, find their own way, among their peers. IMO a campus gym is such a place. So are dorms, which btw increasingly are incorporating their own dedicated workout facilities. If you are on a campus with such dorm workout rooms, then that is a bit different.

Well, I think I’ve said my piece.

Maybe most kids don’t think the way I am suggesting they do, although in my experience, most do. YMMV

Out

Faculty unions are very weak in a lot of the country and administrators cannot be union officers as long as they are administrators, and they work mostly at cross purposes. The general problem here is that tracks across the country have become inaccessible to anyone but the track and xc teams, whether on the high school or college level. I completely understand when teams close the track to the public or even to non-team members at practice, although that should be more on a case by case basis where it would often be of use to have some more people to run with at different paces. That is their prerogative. It hurts the local running scene, which supports the university teams in the short- and long-term, but that is acceptable. But to waste the facility by never allowing anyone on it, considering it will be empty most of the time is wrong, especially when most facilities are funded with taxpayer dollars and the public good is aided (health improved, medical costs cost, public support for track increased) by letting people use the tracks. It does not significantly shorten their usability as much as weather and track meets themselves with lots of fast, spiked up athletes.

Creepy old guys that go to University gym wrote:

What’s with the random old guys that feel the need to get a membership at a University gym?

Miss the good ‘ol college days or something?

At least wear clothes from this decade if you pull that move. Isn’t it easier to drop $10 a month at Crunch than to pay a boatload of money as a non student and walk around like you’re still a student?

And these weirdos aren’t faculty so that’s not an excuse. Go away. You’re creeping out the ladies

Hey assholle, you ever think that the main point of an academic institution is for, i don't know, advancing academics?

Conspiracy theory all you want about admissions prices and athletics for profit being the main drive for new age college, but I'm currently a $30k a year stipend phd student and I'm 32 (old?). I cant afford to go to any outside gyms and im a student.

Whats funny is that no one really gives a shutt about undergrads in college. Teaching them is a means to an end for most. Once you are a graduate student thats when college actually matters for advancing thought and publishing. You undergrads need to shutt the fuckk up. No one cares about you (at least actual researchers at your school)

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Also, no muni track is ridiculous. Where I live in europe, they are everywhere. I train right beside the Eiffel tower, and also right on the Mediterranean seashore.

.

I've never seen a municipal track in the US. I've heard of them in like New York City, maybe some other large cities, and thats it. They aren't a thing here.

If you are teaching staff and don't have an attitude like that toward some students, then you either aren't paying attention or you're pilled out on Oxy just to get through the day, so you're feelings are muted.

Note: I am admin, not a professor.

Read the definition. "teachers and scholars," the latter of which being students. Not quite sure how familiar you are with higher education, but it is my understanding that most (if not all?) universities still have teachers and students. So I'm not sure how that ship sailed off into your hypothetical sunset.

You've tried to make some weird points, but this is the strangest by far. Why would that come "next"? And what purpose would it serve? It simply doesn't make any sense. The faculty club is for faculty (hence the name). There's absolutely no reason for any age restriction. You're either on faculty, and can access the club, or your not and cannot. Simple as that.

Lol i think geezer’s more subtle points were rather above the apprehension of “staff”

I got them, but i still kind of disagree with geezer. Have class, yes, but that goes both ways

I have to agree, it’s always weird seeing old people sitting around doing nothing in the Rec center staring at everyone. I agree with the younger posters. Go join an appropriate gym. We really don’t want you there. Ever notice we avoid you weirdos? Also you old prunes do the same damn workout that never changes. Using the same machines , just sitting on them and not working out. Go home to your wives, but I doubt they like you either. And you guys still look fat and out of shape. Go for a walk or something. We don’t serve your kind.

I think it's because of that "College Coeds" genre of porn and these old guys suddenly think they are going to be getting it on and hook up with a horny Coed chic at the gym.