A missing basketball court, broken water fountains, an inconvenient entrance, endless waits, overcrowding -- students are voicing a seemingly endless list of complaints about the construction-ravaged Gimbel Gymnasium.
The University began building the adjacent $23 million Pottruck Fitness Center this summer, resulting in the destruction of parts of Gimbel. The Pottruck Center will not be completed until 2003.
Students are expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of the gym, especially the elimination of one of Gimbel's three basketball courts to make room for the cardiovascular equipment from the Katz Fitness Center, which was knocked down to make way for Pottruck.
"They took away one of our basketball courts," College senior Bob Warring said. "That was a little disappointing."
One less court has led to lines of waiting students that can be, at times, twice as long as they used to be.
Wharton senior Ben Cohn shared Warring's sentiments, saying he has waited anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for a court.
"I'm pretty bitter about it," Cohn said.
Director of Recreation Mike Diorka said the elimination of a basketball court is a small price to pay for a better gym in the long run.
"We temporarily slapped things together to make it functional," Diorka said. "There will be some inconveniences to get the bigger prize."
Most at Gimbel said they find that the wait for the remaining basketball courts is longest late in the afternoon and in the evening.
However, many are also fans of the new glass backboards that have been installed, one of the only permanent cosmetic improvements made to Gimbel this past summer.
Next on the list of complaints is the main entrance's move from Walnut Street to Sansom Street.
"I think it would be nice if we had an entrance on Walnut Street [and] I think it would be nice if there was water in the room where they have the cardiovascular equipment," Wharton senior Aaron Rosenstein said.
Cohn said one of his main concerns was the fact that the entrance is now on Sansom Street.
"I think the worst is putting the door" on Sansom Street, Cohn said. "It's a huge safety hazard."
A few students also complained about the new PennCard scanning system. According to Rafel Veguilla, the recreation assistant for facilities and aquatics, the old system at the gym's entrance was "pass/fail," meaning that the system only displayed whether or not a card was valid.
The new system, on the other hand, gives more information about the cardholder by way of a computer linked to the card swipe mechanism. As a result, the process is slowed somewhat.
Despite the recent changes made to Gimbel, not all students have complaints. Several students who use the gym in the morning and on weekends have said that it is actually less crowded now at those times than it was in the past.
"It hasn't really had a bad effect on me," College senior Brianne Donohue said. "I think it's less crowded."
