The Stafford Campus has opened a Faculty & Staff Fitness Room for all UMW faculty, staff, and spouses to use.  The Fitness Room is located in Room 107 of the South Building of the Stafford Campus and contains a TechnoGym Recumbent Bike, a TechnoGym Excite Elliptical machine, and a small weight/dumbbell set; additional equipment is anticipated to be added in the future. Yurgen Panzhin, Assistant Director of Campus Recreation and Fitness, gave a demonstration of proper use of the equipment and provided safety information and healthy workout tips to interested Stafford Campus staff and faculty on Tuesday, Feb. 18. The Fitness Room will now provide faculty and staff that work predominantly at the Stafford Campus an easier opportunity to access state of the art exercise equipment free of charge.  It is also in line with one of the major goals of the Healthy Campus 2020 initiative – “to create social and physical environments that promote good health for all.”  With an onsite Fitness Room for staff and faculty, the Stafford Campus has taken a proactive step in promoting physical and mental health through exercise.  Hours of operation will be Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.  To gain access and be eligible to use the fitness room, all individuals must first sign a liability waiver. To obtain the liability waiver, please contact Kevin Caffrey at 540-286-8008 or via email at kcaffrey@umw.edu.

The idea for a fitness room at the Stafford Campus originated in a Staff Advisory Council meeting a couple of years ago. The opening is a great reminder of the advantage of having a Staff Advisory Council that “provides an avenue for employee input and feedback and a means of participating in the design, development, and implementation of University programs, projects, and services.”  Meetings of the Council are open to employees, students, and the public. For more information on the Staff Advisory Council, go to: http://sac.umwblogs.org/.