Returning VCU students might notice some changes to the Cary Street Gym since leaving campus for the summer; the most controversial among those changes is an update in the gym’s dress code.
Director of recreational sports at VCU, Derek Hottell, sat down with the Title IX coordinator and University Counsel’s Office to revise the former dress code. Due to the lack of definition within the gym dress code, gym personnel found that the dress code itself was essentially unenforceable.
“We always had a dress code,” Hottell said. “It just said that you must be wearing a shirt with no description of what was or wasn’t a shirt…We wanted to write out and define what a shirt is with the thought process of why you want someone to wear a shirt at all.”
The new dress code aims to limit the skin-to-equipment contact and skin-to-skin contact. Hottell said Cary Street Gym averages about 4,000 people a day which makes it easy for skin conditions such as MRSA and ringworm to spread. Limiting the skin-to-equipment contact also helps preserve gym equipment since sweat corrodes equipment over time.
While some students were concerned about stringent enforcement of the dress code, Hottell wants to reassure them.
“If the speed limit is 65 mph and you’re going 70 mph, you’re not going to get a ticket,” Hottell said. “But if you’re going 100 mph, you are going to get a ticket.” Gym staff was told during training that if they come across someone who is in complete violation of the dress code to wait until that person is done with whatever set or rep they’re on, approach them confidentially and give them the option of another shirt so they don’t have to leave the gym.
Since the goal is to make the gym as sanitary as possible, they are also planning on supplying more wet wipe stations so that they’re more easily accessible throughout the gym.
One student voiced their displeasure with the new dress code by placing signs in the gym calling out the unfair policing of women’s bodies through the implementation of dress codes. Hottell said that when you have any situation such as this, it’s going to bring conversations around those subjects to the surface.
A few weeks ago, there was more outrage from students regarding the dress code because it was so new and unfamiliar. Hottell said personnel was policing more tightly but now the staff has adapted to the “100 mph” concept.
Hottell said the gym had signs up throughout the summer with references to the new dress code, but since the majority of Cary Street Gym go-ers were home during that time, it was ineffective. He says that the gym will make an effort from now on to have passive promotions regarding changes to the gym out before students leave to avoid further confusion and frustration.
Among other changes in the dress code are new regulations on what’s appropriate to wear in the aquatic center.
Connie Kottman, assistant director of marketing, explains that wearing a t-shirt while swimming is completely acceptable, but the shirt cannot be made out of cotton. Instead, students should wear dry fit t-shirts.
“Cotton gets clogged up in the filters,” Kottman said. “Even just the tiny fibers over time with that much usage can harm the equipment and that’s a very expensive repair.”
Cary Street Gym aims to be as inclusive as possible and the gym directors took that into account when making the changes to the dress code. They met with Camilla Hill, who works with VCU students who identify as LGBTQ to ensure that any student who is transgender, transitioning or has a non-gender conforming identity will still feel comfortable in the gym.
Hottell and Kottmann have been discussing how to make sure that every body type feels comfortable in the gym environment.
“If every message we put out there only has one body image attached to it then that sends a very powerful message about who we are for and who we are not,” he said. “We’re for everyone; we’re for VCU.”
The gym will be holding an open forum on Thursday, Sept. 22 from 5-6 p.m. at the Larrick Student Center Church Hill Board Room. Anyone who has questions or concerns regarding any of the changes to the gym is encouraged to come and have their voices heard.