Shafer Closes, and Re-opens, For The Third Time This Semester

Mathew Biadun | Staff Writer

For the third time this semester, the gymnasium in Shafer Hall had been closed. It had been reopened on March 25th following a closure of nearly twenty days. Less than a week later, an email on March 31st announced it would be closed again. On the 4th of April, another email announced its reopening.

The gymnasium has had a chaotic opening schedule this semester. It wasn’t opened until the 30th of January, about a week after the semester opened. The opening came with an emphasis on rules banning non-Eastern students, faculty or staff from using the gymnasium. 

However, the re-emphasis didn’t put an end to the problems. On March 6th, the gym was shut down again. An email by Paul Serignese, the Interim Director of Housing, listed the following reasons for the closure:

“1. propping the doors to the Shafer gym; 2. allowing non-students who were not guests of a specific resident in the space; 3. inappropriate behavior between individuals in the space”

The following closure lasted until March 25th. Upon reopening, rules reemphasized a ban on non-Eastern guests, Thursday being set aside for volleyball, and a ban on shirtless games. Unfortunately, just six days later, the gymnasium was closed again.

No reason was initially given for this closure. However, the author of this piece reached out to ask Paul Serignese why the gymnasium was once again closed. This was his explanation, sent on April 1st:

“This morning I was informed by the Facilities staff that the backboards were not adequately mounted to the wall and that they hope to be able to have one fixed in the next day or so, but the other one will not be usable until summer. As stated in my original email, once the space is safe for use it will be reopened, even if it is just a half court.”

On April Fourth, the gymnasium was proclaimed open again, with backboards stated publicly as the reason for closing it down. It remains to be seen when the gymnasium in Shafer Hall, a building dating back to 1947 and renovated into a residential hall in 2019, will be consistently operational again going forward. But for now, the gymnasium is open, with times for volleyball to be announced next week.