The IU Student Government executive branch will conduct a survey next week about physical fitness on campus.
The survey, created by Director of Health and Wellbeing Jordan Davis, her freshman intern Katey Basey and committee member Ben Armistead, asks students questions about how many hours a week they exercise, where they typically exercise and why they may choose not to exercise.
The link to the survey will be distributed to students through social media and over text and physical copies of the survey will be handed out at two unconfirmed times next week, Davis said.
The survey was created because the Student Recreational Sports Association, who met with Davis last week, voiced concerns about the level at which students are utilizing the Student Recreational Sports Center. Students pay a $78.39 student activity fee for SRSC services, Davis said.
“The SRSC isn’t experiencing a lot of traffic,” Davis said. “We want to figure out one, if people understand that they are already paying for SRSC services, and two, why aren’t they going.”
The survey also asks the students if they feel exercising is important to their mental health and well-being.
Students today focus more on maintaining mental health and do not discuss physical health as much, Congressional Secretary Madeline Garcia said. However, she said, it’s important that students have access to the gym because working out has many mental as well as physical health benefits.
“Exercise makes you better at focusing, better at being a student and helps you get higher grades,” Garcia said. “I think it’s really important that we create an inclusive environment.”
A team from the IUSG executive branch will collect and analyze the data from this survey and then create a report with a list of recommendations. These will include improvements the SRSA can make regarding problems indicated by the survey data, such as accessibility or making people feel comfortable in certain exercise environments.
This survey is the second one conducted this semester by the IUSG executive branch. The surveys are a part of the executive branch’s campaign platform, which focused on providing more opportunities for students to express their opinions.
It’s easy for the IUSG executive branch members to feel like they have a good perception of what students want, but the surveys allow them to actually get an understanding of how students feel about certain campus issues, Student Body Vice President Matt Stein said.
“This is a stepping stone toward that direction to getting more students heard and more students involved,” Stein said.
