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New Gym Hours: A look at some student’s takes on the updates in the fitness center.

The new gym hours at Eastern University have sparked some frustration among the student body. The gym is open to athletes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on weekends and open to all non-athlete students from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.

“It disappoints me that the gym isn’t open anymore in the morning. It is the perfect way to start a productive day,” EU student, Myles Allen says. Myles is not alone in this sentiment; many other students also feel this way. To many students who are not a part of sports teams, this is seen as an inconvenience; not being able to work out until later in the afternoon disrupts the day’s agenda for many students. While not one that sparks any intense emotion, the reasonable point of the expense of tuition for the average student usually is mentioned during these conversations, with many claiming that Eastern charges too much to not allow the gym to be used by the rest of the student body during the early hours of the day.

However, many students still feel as though these hours are better compared to the gym situation last year had to offer. In order to go to the gym, a student first had to reserve a time for his or herself to go, and even then, a student could only stay for 50 minutes at a time. Due to this change, students felt disincentivized to go to the gym, feeling that there were too many constraints put on gym attendance. Despite the inconveniences of last semester and the odd gym hours that this semester has to offer, the gym hours still are able to give more of an incentive to go than last semester.

Despite the inconvenience of not being able to go in the earlier hours in the day, students are still more happy with the odd hours that the gym has to offer this semester than the reservation of the last. The gym is a place that many students feel as though should not be restricted due to athlete’s routine workouts, although many sympathize with the sentiment of allowing the athletes to have full access to the gym at specific times during the day. In either case, students are ultimately disappointed with their lack of opportunity to work out at the gym during the earlier hours of the day but are happy to finally not have to reserve a time slot to be able to go to the gym.

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Music’s Impact On College Students: A student explores why we listen to music as students.

“Music is life itself,” said Louis Armstrong. Music is an expression of the soul to carry messages of faith, tradition, values, and environment. With the invention of smaller, more compact technology came easier access to music; many listen to music for lyrical content, for focus, or merely for background noise. Music is universal across cultures, something that every culture uses to express its distinct values, customs, and beliefs. The fact that all known cultures have used music is a similarity between cultures itself no matter how different the sound or lyrics. 

I grew up in an area that offered a variety of music; everything from country music, narcocorrido, and rap. Each one had its own unique place where I grew up. When going to the various small towns peppered all over Arizona, it wouldn’t be uncommon for country music to pour out of the honky-tonks and bars where a mix of cowboys, biker gangs, off-duty first responders, and working-class would gather. You would be able to hear this music from blocks away. In the cities, you would hear rap being played in houses and cars. However, this would primarily be at night. It would typically be a mix of older rap— primarily 90s rap—and whatever the top radio hits at the time were. Narcocorrido would be played in most all neighborhoods I knew. Whenever I visit Arizona, there is at least one night when friends and I would be up late and hear narcocorridos, mariachi, or ranchera coming from a large party in a nearby house in the neighborhood. These are some of the music genres that I have been able to transfer over to Eastern University thanks to easily accessible technology. It’s been an experience to not only introduce others to these kinds of music genres, or further strengthen the love for them, but to also be able to listen to other kinds of music that I have never heard of as well. 

After some asking about what fellow students listen to, I was lead to a new genre, afrobeat. From there, I also learned about the djembe drum, which is a drum originating in the Mali Empire. The drum was loud enough to be used for communication from mountaintop to mountaintop about the King’s arrival since it was his favorite instrument. Afrobeat can combine many different styles of music, and combine it into something that all can still enjoy today, as there are many artists still making afrobeat. 

Eastern’s campus has a diverse body that allows for many different people of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures to learn about each other in many ways; especially in the case of music. All music conveys powerful messages that give insight into cultures and groups; exposing each culture’s rich history to the world.