After three months of exercising in the John W. Berry Sports Center and the Leverone Field House this summer, students will return to the Lewinstein Athletic Center — including the Alumni Gym, locker rooms, pools and the Zimmerman Fitness Center — this fall. The center reopened at 5 a.m. this morning.
Throughout the summer, the LAC underwent changes to its pipes and heating and cooling systems, all of which were designed to align the LAC with the College’s energy transition plan, according to Athletics communication director Stephanie Albrycht.
Executive associate Athletics director for business strategy and operations J.B. Weber said in an interview with The Dartmouth that the only visible changes to gym facilities will be “up in the rafters.”
“If you look up in the ceiling, you might notice that a pipe is in a different place or something like that,” he explained. The gym’s actual user layout “will be as it was when it closed in June.”
Students may notice more effective heating and cooling in LAC facilities due to the updated infrastructure, Weber said.
Albrycht wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that the summer term was chosen for closure because NCAA and Ivy League Athletics prohibit official practices during the summer, meaning renovations would not disrupt varsity athletes’ training schedules. She added that Zimmerman Fitness Center attendance is 55% lower and enrollment for indoor fitness courses is 69% lower in the summer months of June, July and August.
Throughout this summer, Weber explained in a follow-up email to The Dartmouth, that Athletics saw “growth in usage of the two alternate gym spaces” as the term progressed. Weber wrote that he attributes the success of alternate gym locations to the partnership between Athletics and Dartmouth Student Government.
DSG have “been really great partners all the way through,” he said. “We rely a lot on them for student feedback to tell us what improvements students are looking for.”
In a statement to The Dartmouth, DSG president Ikenna Nwafor ’27 thanked Dartmouth Athletics and students for providing feedback and working with DSG throughout the process of establishing temporary workout facilities. Dartmouth Athletics’s responsiveness “made a difficult transition much more manageable and showed what productive collaboration between students and the College can look like,” and students’ feedback “directly shaped the conversations we had with Athletics and the improvements we pushed for,” Nwafor wrote.
Looking forward, Nwafor said DSG will continue to work with Dartmouth Athletics throughout the fall.
“In particular, we hope to continue conversations around gym access and hours, alongside broader efforts to strengthen student wellness and make sure Dartmouth's fitness resources are as responsive as possible to student needs,” he added. “We are thankful to Athletics and to the students who worked with us throughout the summer, and we look forward to continuing that partnership in the year ahead.”
Weber said that providing “fitness recreation opportunities” for students is “one of the biggest joys” of his job.
“We’re rearing and ready to go at 5 a.m. on Sept. 1,” Weber said. “We’re really excited to be able to have everything back up and running.”
Kay Alvito ’29 contributed to reporting.
Tierney Flavin ’28 is a reporter and editor. She is from Kansas City, Mo. and plans to major in Government and Sociology.
