From Aug. 28 through Sept. 5, the University of Oregon Student Recreation Center is closed for annual maintenance.
Although the close is a minor inconvenience for summer UO students and community members, it is an important aspect of maintaining a high quality rec center. This has become more difficult to manage in such a short amount of time due to the 2015 expansion, says associate director for facilities and operations Tiffany Lundy.
According Lundy, the maintenance is mostly deep cleaning and rotation of the equipment, which gives the equipment a longer life span.
“Some older equipment from the late 90s will get rotated out and some new equipment will get rotated in,” Lundy said.
The maintenance includes dusting, window washing, cleaning and resealing all the floors and repairing equipment. In addition, the outdoor tennis courts and track are being resurfaced.
“For us, it’s really about that safety and quality care,” Lundy said of the maintenance.
The SRC maintenance will also include changing out the lightbulbs with LED bulbs to be more energy-efficient.
Lundy doesn’t expect students returning to the rec center after maintenance to notice much of the work.
“Unfortunately it’s a lot of things people wouldn’t notice, or they would only notice if it’s not done well,” Lundy said, “but it’s all those things that have to be done to add to the life and quality of the experience … It’s about taking really good care of the students’ investment.”
Some outside contractors were hired for the more complex and specialty jobs, such as resealing the floors, but the other tasks, especially cleaning, were taken on by the rec center’s student workers, Lundy said.
“We have a group of students that work with our maintenance staff that are called ‘rec techs’ and they do so much work. They deserve total recognition for the incredible skills they have,” Lundy said.
The SRC will reopen prior to the start of fall term on Sept. 6.

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The Rec will be closed until Sept. 6 for annual maintenance (Courtesty University of Oregon)