Photo by: Megan Westervelt
DU students are now being charged for hour and a half yoga classes at the Ritchie Center.
Carin Orr, the aquatics and fitness program manager, said that the new cost accompanying the hour and a half yoga class is due to students’ requests to have more of the longer yoga classes put on the schedule.
The class fee is being used to pay the instructors for their additional time spent teaching classes.
The one-hour yoga classes are still free of cost, and the longer yoga classes cost $5 for a drop-in fee. A punch-card is also available for $30 for 10 classes.
“The [student] activity fees do not actually affect the fitness center. They do not cover any of the classes,” Orr said.
In addition to the new fee, the longer yoga classes are limited to 20 participants.
Orr said limiting the number of yogis in each class will give people more of an opportunity to have hands-on adjustments from the instructors, and it will help to give the classes a more personal touch.
“It will help the participators to mentally and physically mature through the poses,” said Orr.
“I really like the way the longer classes are now,” said Chelsea Wilson, a political science major and sophomore. “I feel like the classes are more reflective of classes I take at other studios and that they incorporate more health benefits now. They are a lot more personal and a lot more challenging. The classes seem to have more people who want to make yoga a part of their life.”
When asked about the possibility of a decrease in students’ attendance as a result of the class fee, Orr said, “It’s possible. However, from what we’ve seen, approximately 70 percent of the passes have been sold to students.”
“Nothing is ever impossible,” Orr said when asked about the option of charging community members for the yoga classes but not charging students. “But if we end up with a class of just students it’s a catch-22.”
Last year only two of the hour and a half yoga classes were offered per week, but now three more have been added to the schedule.
These five classes will be included in the schedule for the entire year, where as last year they were omitted during the winter season.
One-hour long yoga classes are still available to students who may not have time to go to the longer ones.
Schedules are available on the Ritchie Center Web site, or at the front desk in the entrance to the Ritchie Center.
Reserving a spot in the longer yoga classes is recommended, and can be done by stopping by the front-desk at the Ritchie Center, or by calling.
A reservation can be made up to 48 hours in advance.
“The benefit we see in the longer classes is in the fact that it allows a safer time spent with instructors. If we continue to see success we will add more hour and a half classes,” Orr said.
