I received a request from a fellow student to address an issue at UNH that I’m sure most of you have dealt with at least once. It may not seem like a big issue, but when it happens to you, it is the most frustrating thing in the world. It is enough to ruin your day, and definitely your exercise regimen. So to whoever is in charge here, my fellow UNH students and myself are asking you—why can’t you get into the gym without a student ID card?!

Apparently, it is a rule at the Rec Center that you must have a valid student ID to use the facilities. This seems reasonable; I wouldn’t want people coming in off the streets and being able to take up the machines when students are paying thousands of dollars to use the facilities, but there must be an easier way than always showing a student ID.

If it has happened to you before, you know how frustrating it is to get to the gym only to realize you left your ID at home. It’s not like getting to the gym is an easy task; you have to either trek across campus in the cold or you have had to fight the Campbell Ave. traffic and find a parking spot, only to be told you have to go home. I know the people working at the check-in desk in the gym are only doing their job when they turn you away because you don’t have an ID, but sometimes it would be nice just to get a break.

What many students don’t understand is that if you are a student at UNH, you are entitled to a gym a membership, and students can easily be identified through our student ID number. So why can’t they just look us up in the system with our student ID number, instead of just blatantly saying “No, you can’t workout if you can’t show your ID”? On top of it, they have our picture on file, so their should be no reason why that is not a valid form of identification. It is the majority opinion among students who regularly use the Rec Center that it would be much easier just to look up our student ID numbers than to turn people away and prevent them from working out.

It gets even more frustrating when you have to go get a new student ID card but the bookstore closes at 6 p.m. After having a full day of classes, all some of us want to do is work out and de-stress, but if you can’t get to the book store by 6 p.m. for that new ID, you can kiss your workout goodbye. The Rec employees will take no sympathy on you and if you think they’ll just let you slide, well guess again. But the employees at the Rec are not the ones to take your frustration out on; they are just following orders. It is whoever is higher up that made this dumb rule that deserves your wrath for ruining your workout.

The Rec Center is a great facility, and students want to take full advantage of it. For fitness freaks, missing a day of working out could be detrimental to their schedule, and I don’t think that should happen simply because they cannot find their ID. As college students, we have a million things on our minds; it is easy to misplace a little plastic card. The Rec Center should consider looking students up by their ID numbers instead of turning students away when they encounter this problem. I just don’t see the need for ruining someone’s workout over something so small.