As a result of budget cuts, the Student Recreation Center on Southeast’s campus recently cancelled all free group fitness classes and made changes to costs for fitness passes and hours of operations.

For many years, free group fitness classes such as Drum to the Beat and Pilates were offered to students at specific times of the week, such as “Free Saturday Specials.”

Assistant Director of Fitness and Wellness Sara Wagganer explained some of the changes for the upcoming semester.

"We did have several free classes in past years — our lunch express used to be free and we'd typically do one or two late night 7:30 p.m. classes," Wagganer said. "We did go through quite a few budgeting changes in the past few months, so we had to unfortunately make those classes not free anymore."

She noted there have also been changes to the costs of faculty and staff membership fees.

In recent years, a university affiliates (faculty and staff) would have to pay up to 82 dollars for a full membership. However, Southeast President Carlos Vargas has granted faculty and staff free membership with a Southeast ID, which he refers to as an "employee wellness benefit."

Despite the new benefit, faculty and staff still have to pay the same amount as students for group fitness classes.

A group fitness class pass is $45 per semester to participate in any class. If a semester group fitness class pass is not purchased, there is a per-class fee of $4 each.

In 2018, a pass for group fitness classes was $25 per semester and $3 per class. Although the costs of the classes have changed, Wagganer stressed the group fitness schedule and quality of the classes are still the same.

Similar to previous years, students, faculty and staff will still have a chance to explore potential classes for free as the Rec is offering free group classes during the first two weeks of school. Every now and then, Wagganer said students might see free classes offered during the year.

"Periodically, throughout the semester we will probably still do specials like Wednesday nights or Halloween, you know, try free classes [on] Halloween or bring a friend for free," Wagganer said.

Budget cuts have also negatively affected student workers and the overall hours of operation for recreation services.

“As far as our student employees go, we have had to reduce some hours,” Wagganer said.

The new hours of operation for the Recreation Center are as follows: Monday through Thursday from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m.

The Student Aquatic Center is now open Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., 4 to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

For more information about the Student Recreation and Aquatic Center visit semo.edu/recservices.