Dear Clarion Editors,

We recently read the piece you published titled, “DU expands Ritchie Center despite budget strains.” The misinformation and lack of fact-checking before publishing this opinion piece could not go ignored.

The Wellness and Recreation Division does not receive any tuition or student fees to support its programming and operations except for an allocation of the student activity fee directly to the club sports program. The division is supported through auxiliary revenue, such as paid memberships to the Coors Fitness Center, facility rentals and fundraising. In fact, funding for this enhancement project is supported by grant dollars, fundraising, an equipment depreciation fund and an allocation from the Undergraduate Student Government to purchase a designated piece of fitness equipment, approved last fiscal year.

The Coors Fitness Center project was initiated based on increased utilization of the weight room and safety standards for the equipment. The university received many requests from students and numerous on-campus organizations to improve this area to benefit students and their workout needs. The Coors Fitness Center also expanded hours of operation at the request of students. Last year, the Coors Fitness Center had 159,000 student visits and 5,652 unique student users.

Improvements to the Coors Fitness Center were scheduled to take place as early as 2022, but due to delays in fitness equipment manufacturing, availability of equipment and availability of a contractor, the project was delayed. The strength equipment that is being replaced is past its operational life, outside of its warranty, and often requires additional and greater costs to maintain. Older equipment is also damaged and out of order more frequently. No equipment has been added to the Coors Fitness Center in the past two years.

The health and wellbeing of our students, faculty, staff and the community who uses the Coors Fitness Center is critically important – just as important as making sure everyone has the correct facts. The spread of misinformation only increases the odds that people will believe it, which in turn increases the odds that they will spread it.

Rachel Artist, Director of Wellness & Recreation 

Stuart Halsall, Interim Vice Chancellor, SAIE Associate Vice Chancellor, Kennedy Mountain Campus, Wellness & Recreation