From Aikido, to yoga, to even Zumba; Pacific University offers an abundance of both open recreational activities and intramural sports to its students. It’s no new feature that Pacific is offering such classes, as these activities have been available for years — rather, it’s whether or not students are utilizing these resources that’s raised questions. With so many options and such a variety of classes, students must be attending these classes, right?
On the contrary, many find the classes interesting, but difficult to attend. The classes are held at odd times. For example, the class with the expected highest turnout rate, Yoga, is held from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Not only is this in the middle of the day when most students are in classes, but it’s actually held during the freshman classes’ required First Year Seminar (FYS). Upon being asked about the variety of classes, open-rec teacher and Pacific faculty member, Dave Dewbery, stated that while there’s an abundance of classes, student’s schedules often don’t “mesh” with the open-rec time slots.
Dewbery recollected the amount of times students have come to his class just to say that they wish they could take his class, but it was difficult to fit into their already hectic schedules. This presents not a problem with the amount of options offered through Pacific, but rather a problem within the time-frame they’re offered in. Despite these problems, the classes themselves are found to be not only fun, but worthwhile, too.
The aikido class, for instance, is a class that not many undergraduate students have attended. Although, after attending the class, we found it to be worth the time. While you may need to have the personality for this particular activity, we’d recommend attending any another class. It’s a fun way to trick yourself into exercising while also giving yourself the opportunity to gain new skills.
For this particular class, student attendees get to both throw people to the ground and get thrown to the ground, learn self defense techniques, and grab people’s sweaty wrists. During our session, sensei Dewbery was encouraging and patient with us as students, making the entire class more comfortable to try new things and have fun.
We would recommend other students take advantage of the resources provided by Pacific and try something new. We were unsure if we’d enjoy the class, but it was a blast and we plan on returning. Overall, this was just one example of an open-rec class being useful and fun, and we hope to see more students utilizing the university resource.
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