health | Stories from the Hill

One of the best things you can do for yourself while you’re at McDaniel is go to the gym. College in general is not that healthy. In general it entails staying up late working on assignments, eating while you’re doing it, spending copious amounts of time sitting doing work, and let’s face it–glar isn’t all that healthy either. So with the help of donations from the Merritt family, the same Merritt family whose name appears on many fitness centers in the area and most recently on what used to be Academic Hall after yet another generous donation to the school, the school has provided a fantastic fitness center.

I find it best to use the gym between 2 and 4pm on most days. Sports teams usually take over the gym from about 4 to 5:30 on weekdays, so for a nice uninterrupted workout I prefer the earlier hours. Plenty of people choose to use the gym around 8 or 9 though and since the gym stays open until 11 most nights pretty much anyone can find their perfect time to exercise using state-of-the-art equipment that was almost entirely donated to the school by the Ravens when they used to hold their summer practices here.

What I like most about the gym is its relaxed atmosphere, which is aided by the way it’s set up. The cardio and body weight based workout equipment, like medicine balls and yoga mats, are located on the second floor above the weight machines and free weights, so those less inclined to “pump iron” and simply do push ups or crunches are free to do so without feeling intimidated by the muscle meat heads. Oh, and the muscle meat heads are anything but; they actually are probably the least intimidating people in the world. Just the other day I was struggling to finish my last set and one random soccer player came up behind me and coached me through it, helping on the last few inches. I was struggling with a 150 pound bench but he didn’t judge me, so that speaks nicely to the community established at the gym.

Though it may not be the best part of the day, or even a huge part of your life at McDaniel, the gym is absolutely a wonderful part of the many things that McDaniel has to offer. Whether you’re training for a marathon, getting in shape for your sport, or just purely trying to stay healthy and keep your body in peak shape for summer, the gym has what you need. Plus there’s no sense in passing up a free workout!

Before this week I would never have known what gastroenteritis was, let alone what it could do to a campus! The term “going viral” has never meant more to me than it does now. Beginning on Tuesday night, what McDaniel students have been calling the “McVirus” or simply “The Plague” began infecting students, spreading like wildfire across the campus. On the Phi Mu floor in ANW, which is the one below my own, 12 girls all came down with it all in one night and 2 of them had to be hospitalized due to dehydration.

Aside from being gross, the threat of getting McVirus inspired the most fear in students. Sanitation can be an issue when so many people live in close proximity to each other, and the physical plant worked almost non-stop to try and disinfect commonly touched objects like doorknobs and counters; Glar changed some of their operational habits to prevent germs from spreading. For example, they began handing out the silverware instead of allowing students to pick their own. Even to their best efforts, however, McVirus spread to a majority of students and even go McDaniel on the 8:30 Baltimore News on Friday.

Lack of hand soap in the residence halls was a big problem. I think the college assumes that most students will bring their own Purell or some other form of hand sanitation, but clearly this assumption does not hold true. The college sent out all kinds of e-mail reminders telling students to wash their hands and avoid the virus as much as possible. The result was that angry students ended up complaining on the McDaniel page about the soap shortage and McDaniel responded by supplying all the bathrooms in all the residence halls with fresh soap and a stack of paper towels.

This goes to show what a little bit of skillful complaining can do on a college campus. I was impressed by the college’s responsiveness to Facebook grievances. By Friday, the school reported a lower number of sick students and like that the epidemic was ended. Hopefully next week will be back to normal. In my case I went home to avoid the school for the weekend and to catch up on some much needed sleep, so returning to school as usual will be refreshing for me.

Stories from the Hill

Tag Archives: health

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