How users currently use the RAC
When it comes to using the RAC, members and employees face a fairly simple process. Once they gain access to the building they can use any piece of functioning equipment, as well as rent any type of sporting equipment. Some members can get warm towels for showering and swimming. Sometimes members of the RAC need a drink which they can buy from a vending machine as long as it is stocked Members and employees also use the weight room which has various types of bench presses, dumbbells and free weights. Members and employees can also rent out the indoor courts to play hockey, soccer and tennis as well.
How users will use the RAC in the future
Members of the RAC can do all of the things mentioned above, as long as the equipment and materials are available and functioning. However, many of said things aren’t properly functioning or available to them. Treadmills and stationary bikes breakdown easily, weights go missing, basketball and soccer balls get torn up and go flat. A 3D printer could solve these issues in the future. If a weight goes missing, the printer can replace it. If a treadmill has a broken part, it can be printed and replaced easily. If someone needs a towel but there aren’t any clean ones available at the moment, a new one can be printed. If allt he basketball or soccer balls are checked out or flat, it can be printed out. Another problem is that sometimes people want equipment the RAC can’t supply, like lacrosse sticks, a Frisbee, a rugby ball, baseballs and baseball gloves With a 3D printer these can be obtained easily by the member. . Sometimes people show up at the RAC without the proper attire (wearing flip-flops or boots, and wearing jeans or khakis not shorts or sweatpants). If there was a 3D printer they could literally just print out the right attire and stay at the RAC instead of having to go all the way back to their dorm or home.
Personas:
Rick Beilein is a 64 year old Chemistry professor at UMBC. He likes to workout in between classes to stay in shape so that he can continue to teach for as a long as possible. He enjoys the leg press, unfortunately, his legs are so strong that the weights the RAC offer for it aren’t much of a workout for him anymore (Variable 1). He has been grandfathered (no pun intended) into the towel service which was discontinued to new members in the summer of 2011, but since he was on the towel list when the service was discontinued, he can still have towel access. He normally works out in the hours he has every day between classes and office hours so he needs to shower and change quickly (Variable 2).
Peyton Burke
Peyton is a second semester freshman at UMBC. He enjoys using the RAC to blow off steam after classes. He loves to play basketball at the RAC (Variable 3), but he struggles to be able to play because most of the times he is able to go to the gym all of the good basketballs are checked out, and those that aren’t are pretty flat. The best times for him to go is after his environment science lab, but he has to wear boots to that class because they always go to the nature reserve stream on the backside of campus in the middle of every class. So even though he is near the RAC he always has to go back to his dorm to change into proper shoes and get in to the right attire, but by the time he gets back all the basketballs are gone. He likes to lift weights as well, but struggles because the weights the RAC has are too heavy for him as a beginner.
Spike Hancock works is RAC employee who manages the building and he mainly focuses on making sure everything stays up and running. His main problem is making sure that all the equipment stays up and running (Variable 4). The issues he has are when the treadmills and stationary bikes breakdown, he has to have the replacement parts mailed in and that takes two days, which leaves members angry. Another issue people complain to him about is the lack of drinks available in the vending machines, the supplier is very poor about coming to restock them, and people often forget to bring their own water bottles to work out (Variable 5).
Data
A recent article in the school newspaper (The Retriever) pointed out that many students and faculty who use the RAC are very unhappy with the non-functioning equipment. A lot of the money from student rec fees went to renovations of the swimming and tennis facilities, and while people who use them are happy, the workout facilities need work. As the article states “The RAC’s gym equipment is a poor excuse for an exercise facility. If you wander in there at any main time of the day, excluding an hour before the RAC closes and the first hour it opens, you will often see countless students resting up against the cardio balcony’s railing.
The students are not resting from fatigue due to the treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical, but because they have to wait up to thirty minutes to use the next available machine. The number of available exercise machines is only the first problem. UMBC has roughly 10,000 undergraduate students, but the RAC only has 30 cardio machines. Of those 30 cardio machines, only about 22 work correctly.”This article was met with much support from the student body and it shows that people use the RAC are upset with the lack and amount of functioning equipment. From workingin the RAC I heard numerous personal complaints about these issues myself.
Some Assembly Required 