The SHAPE athletic facility recently reopened on Aug. 24 for the campus community. There are new guidelines in place in order to keep students and staff safe. The facility is currently in the first phase of reopening athletic facilities to the campus.
Phase one is the reopening of the campus. Athletic fields, gyms,and weight rooms can only be at 25% capacity. This phase includes the startup of varsity sports without competition, reopening of the varsity gym, athletic training rooms, and limited use of the weight room.
Campus members are no longer allowed to walk-in to use any part of the facility. Online sign-ups for 50 minute time lots are on the Johnson athletics website. The pool and rock climbing walls are not open for use.
The pool is currently covered by a massive blue tarp. All the lights are off in the pool house except a few that are left on 24/7. The pool has been closed since NVU shut down all on-campus activities in March, and there is currently no reopen date.
If the pool were to reopen this academic year, there are a number of conditions that would apply. Only 12 people would be allowed in the pool house at one time, and this includes the lifeguard on duty.
The pool is only six lanes wide, so only six people would be allowed in the water. All pool users would have to cover with a proper face mask if they are not in the water. Those who sign up to use to the pool would have to bring their own towels and swim gear.
The pool would have to mark off proper social distance markers for the pool entrance hallway and create a new exit, which would likely be the doors that lead out into the back of the Bentley parking lot. The locker rooms in the SHAPE facility are closed, and all personal items would have to be placed at marked areas.
When there are no participants using the pool, the lifeguard would be required to sanitize all the high-point touch areas. Once a participant leaves the pool house, proper sanitization of where personal items were placed would need to be performed right away.
The rest of the SHAPE facility is limited to the campus community and all who want use the gym need to sign up for time-slots online. The facility has no plan in place yet to allow community members to sign up for time slots due to the restrictions on outside visitors. Once phase two begins, which has no determined date, the facility will be running at 75% capacity.
All of the locker rooms are closed, but the first floor bathrooms by the Carter Gym are open for use.
Those entering SHAPE to work out must check in at the front desk and complete a symptom check-in. The water fountains are closed, but water filling stations are open for those with their own bottle. Visitors must bring their own sports equipment, yoga mats, and towels.
The volleyball team is the only high-risk and competitive varsity sport that is allowed to use the gym over the capacity rule. Every team member and coach must wear a face mask the entire time practices are held.
The soccer teams are running practices on the Minaert Fields and have to follow social distancing rules if they are not scrimmaging.
Once SHAPE begins phase two, more information will come out about reopening the pool and rock wall. These are the two areas of the facility which require extra sanitization and monitoring.