CSU East Bay’s recreation facility is not your average gym. The Recreation and Wellness Center, also known as the RAW, is growing and changing faster this spring quarter than ever.

The 2-year-old athletic facility opened January of 2012, and is filled with state of the art equipment, said Rebecca Harper, interim director of the RAW. They now have three full-time people running the building for recreation after having a recent turnover in leadership.

“If we look at the numbers from last year, actively enrolled students was probably around the 4,100 mark,” said Harper. “This quarter we have seen that number go to 4,800. So we are seeing an increase of 700 active members just in this quarter alone.”

There is a slow population of community members coming in, partly because of lack of advertisement, Harper said. Initially, they were reluctant to open the facility to the local public and feared there would be too many members for the facility, she added. So, this year they put limits on the amount of community memberships for the year, she explains, which is currently one of the main issues.

Following popular demand, the RAW is incorporating new and widely sought-after classes. This year they are going to have a body sculpt class with one of their newest instructors Anaja Bass. They will also have the trendy dance fitness class, Zumba. Along with TRX circuit station, yoga, cardio funk, kickboxing, boxing, and a cycling class.

“I took my first yoga class here, it was relaxing, learning how to meditate,” said freshman Shanice Spencer. “I really enjoyed the instructor, especially coming in as a beginner.”

Harper notes their most popular classes are Zumba and yoga. Yoga has seen an average of 12 to 15 per class, she said. The spinning classes are quickly filling up as they can only have 20 people in the room spinning because of their large bikes.

“We offer fitness classes throughout the week, that students can take and this has always been an extra cost,” said Harper. “The price last quarter was $32 for this pass, but I came in and knew that was really too high for what we’re offering and students wouldn’t be able to participate, so I dropped that in half. It’s $14 for a fitness pass now and we saw three times the amount of people coming in. Last quarter we had about 28 buy the fitness pass and now we are up to 120 people.”

Harper mentions they are doing better this year because they are “more established,” but explains more commuters should utilize the recreational facility. As of now, 95 percent of CSUEB students are commuters, according to CSU Mentor.

The gym’s main problems are  that members abuse the offered amenities, Harper claims. She noted, many students are taking or forgetting to return the towels provided by the gym. People forget to lock their lockers, according to Harper, who says they have experienced theft. Moreover, the limited amount of lockers is not enough for people working out.

“We are looking at maybe a check out system to hold people responsible for the towels. Also the lockers system,” said Harper, “We know people aren’t confident locking their stuff up in the lockers, so we’re looking at more of a manual lock instead of a digital lock.” Aside from those problems, the RAW is offering modern equipment and workout sessions.

In their new TRX session and P90X session, an instructor, with maybe a group of three or four, and go through a small group training. But they are planning to add even more for the following school year, a new program trial in the fall, personal training. Offering both single and buddy personal training sessions.

Harper said she expects more fitness classes and student participation in the next five years.

“Let’s have more students be instructors,” said Harper. “Having an affective training with the staff, keeping staff on for a little bit longer. The retention I guess would be longer; more programming events, and maybe peaking into outdoor adventures and stuff.”

The RAW will have an Earth Week Celebration on April 22-25. There will be an event on Tuesday April 23 out in the RAW plaza doing the initial thought on their clothing swap, where you bring clothes in exchange for something else. There will be  a huge art display, following the cutting or painting of recycled materials to make the display.

“The initiative we’re doing right now, which will be displayed for earth week, is that we got a grant through sustainable committee on campus to give bottles away to students and remind them that they can fill it up here at the RAW,” said Harper.  “A lot of students don’t know that they can get filtered water here at the RAW so that’s one effort to stay green and educate students to come fill up their water bottle  at the RAW.”

The center is also trying to plan hikes and backpacking clinics for the spring, and will host the Hayward Hills Challenge, the first 5K at CSUEB on May 11. In addition, they are talking about plans to host an “Accessibility’s Day,” an event that will introduce how to use recreational facilities for all students, those with disabilities, or people who just need to be aware of these areas of fitness.