By Gwen Frost
The fencing club and the volleyball team (along with everyone else) waited two years for Carver to be completed, and now are seeing that the wait is not over. So far, about once a week this quarter, they have been told they cannot practice in the space in Carver that they pay rent for.
The team held up signs in Red Square midday on Tuesday November 11, protesting this unfair treatment. There were five members there when I arrived.
“It’s going to keep happening,” Trinity Trosper, vice president of the fencing team, said. The team pays for this space, and every fencer pays $50 in dues a year to to cover rent as well as team dues.
“It’s not because there’s not enough space, it’s because they don’t want to give us the space,” Trosper said.
Before the team started fencing this quarter, they also submitted a schedule with their requested time and practice space.
Since they weren’t asked to make any changes, they assumed they would have regular access to Gym C at the time they requested, Cole Vanderschaegen, president of the fencing team, said
After waiting two weeks for Carver to open for sports clubs, Vanderschaegen said they were only told about cancelled practices about five days before the first cancellation. Prior, the team had received no warning or indication that practice space would even be an issue this year.
The team has so far lost an entire week of practice due to varsity games, making it difficult for new members to learn the sport effectively, Vanderschaegen said.
“We submitted all our paperwork, we got our schedule approved, and yet our space continues to be taken from us,” Vanderschaegen said. “Simply put: this isn’t fair treatment.”
Fencing is not alone in having issues. The Volleyball Club has lost three days so far, and wrestling has dealt with delays involving their mats being moved into their space in Carver, Vanderschaegen said.
Trosper explained that because of the amount of equipment required for fencing, it is difficult, if not undoable, to transport materials back and forth for every change of location.
“The volleyball team can probably pay 25 extra dollars (after paying for the room) to use the rec center, but the fencing team can’t move around easily because of the type of equipment we have,” Trosper said. With jackets, helmets, swords, sheaths, gloves, and more, fencing is not able to relocate easily.
The problem isn’t over-crowding alone. Trosper indicated that Gym D doesn’t have anything scheduled until after 3 p.m. each day, but it’s use is strictly designated for physical education majors. One option would be to allow sports and student clubs access to this gym.
When Vanderschaegen looked at the schedule, there didn’t seem to be anything going on after 4 p.m., he said.
The team needs “somewhere, at the very least, we could practice without having to go through all the hassle of booking a completely different room and still not have access to our equipment,” said Vanderschaegen. Though the team prefers a compromise, they minimum they are asking for is of some kind of warning so they could rework their training schedule ahead of time.
The fencing club is unique in that it is composed of students of all genders, as well as varying levels of expertise.
“We accept everyone, whether you’re super competitive or you just want to try something different,” said Vanderschaegen, “and that means a lot to people.”
In his two years of fencing testified “I’ve learned so much about myself, my limitations, how to overcome them, and how to help others facing the same issues I did.”
Now, two weeks later, the team has had what Vanderschaegen described as a ”very productive meeting” with the sports club administration.There was discussion about potentially moving to Gym A after it was requested that they move their equipment there, he said.
The team is still currently in Gym C, which is very inconvenient due to the need to move equipment back and forth between the two spaces, but the potential transfer to Gym A could begin next quarter, leading to less varsity-game interruptions.
“There was no verbal guarantee this would be the case, but I feel like we are making some progress,” Vanderschaegen said.
Paul Cocke, director of communications and marketing, said he put in a request for information on this topic and had not yet heard back.