Space Storage Hits Club Sports

Harvard club teams are struggling to find adequate practice space in light of the Malkin Athletic Center’s reduced operating hours, a recent impact of the University’s widespread budget-cutting initiatives.

The MAC’s weekday closing hours have been tightened from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m., creating a scarcity of room availability for student sport and recreation groups, primarily in booking the MAC’s Mezzanine room.

“It has always been tight and it’s always a hotly-contested battle for space,” President of Harvard Taekwondo Khoa Tran ’10 said. “We are all being as flexible as we can.”

Yet, many club participants question the University’s priorities and point to a possible conflict of interest.

“They schedule all of their paid classes before we club sports even get a look at the list,” said President of the Harvard-Radcliffe Kendo Club, Amanda W. Hu ’10. “So first, we have limited options with time slots and now we lose an hour from our main practice time.”

These constraints come in the wake of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ May announcement that three JV men’s sports teams—ice hockey, baseball, and basketball—would be cut and re-emerge this fall at club-level status.

Tran said club team representatives attended a mandatory scheduling meeting last Tuesday in an effort to collectively negotiate a new schedule. He said that precedence was given to groups that occupied a particular time slot last year and wished to keep it.

“Each club has its own requirements—some need mats to practice, dance groups need mirrors, and so on. Everyone understand the situation and is trying to be accommodating,” Tran said.

He noted, however, that scheduling is further complicated as many groups must work around an outside instructor’s availability.

“Our instructor, Michael Tang, can only come in after 9 p.m. It’s frustrating because it’s an hour drive for him to get here and then he can only stay for an hour. Last year,, we had him for two,” Tran said.

Many teams, accustomed to having the room to themselves, also face other obstacles in having to split the space with other groups.

Harvard Taekwondo, for example, will share practice space with the Crimson Dance Team for a half hour on Thursday nights.

“It will be an interesting mix because they will be playing dance music while we do our routines. We ourselves yell every time we kick... and we kick a lot,” Tran said.

“I don’t think it will be a safety hazard—just an inconvenience,” he added. “But it will all work out because it has to.”

Even outside club teams, several MAC staff have noted a general frustration with the reduced hours.

“People will show up at 9:25 p.m. and are completely surprised. They get upset but they know that there is nothing I can do,” said Elyse M. Traverse ’11.