The summer is the perfect time for students to get outside and get active. Luckily, there are two convenient recreational spaces located on campus where students can play sports: the Buckley Volleyball courts and the Buckley tennis courts.
Students can use these spaces and lose themselves in the joy of pick-up volleyball, pickleball or tennis, simultaneously reaping the social and physical rewards from these incredible activities. One word of advice, though; do not enjoy yourself too much, you might find yourself being kicked off the court as hordes of external intramural groups such as Heyday Athletics and Stonewall Sports commandeer Drexel’s recreation space from students.
Drexel’s recreational spaces occupy a wildly convenient location in Philadelphia. The spaces are easily accessible by public transit, in good condition and, controversially, easily rented.
Most days of the week, a group external to Drexel has rented time on these courts, monopolizing their usage during the courts’ peak hours. This has led to a growing sense of frustration amongst the student body as the small amount of recreation space that exists is sparsely available to them.
According to Patricia Oller, Associate Director of Recreation, and Orlin Jesperson, Director of University Recreation, Drexel’s facilities are in high demand, leaving the school trying to strike a delicate balance.
“Because our facilities are always in demand, they are closely managed and we prioritize making them available to students, while also considering limited external rental requests from our neighbors in the Philadelphia community,” said Oller and Jesperson. “In practice, we aim to limit the activity of an external group to one day per week so that the courts are primarily available to students.”
For some students, the cost associated with these courts is a major point of consternation. As part of each student’s tuition, a student activity fee of $790 partially goes towards student’s access to Drexel recreational spaces. Drexel declined to disclose how much these external groups pay to rent these courts, however, some students feel shortchanged by their limited access to facilities that they pay to use.
Olivia Maddox, a rising senior, reported feeling “frustrated” by paying for access to facilities that are then being reserved for the exclusive use of non-Drexel entities.
“Drexel students use these recreational spaces to exercise and build community. Since Buckley Field has been removed, it has been very difficult to find space for recreational sports on campus. Drexel renting out the very limited recreational spaces we have on campus is very frustrating as a student,” said Maddox.
Ava Buckingham, a rising pre-junior and avid pickleball player, echoed these sentiments while highlighting other inconveniences brought on by the renting out of these spaces.
“It’s frustrating when you go to the courts looking to play with friends and the courts are rented out to a non-Drexel affiliated group,” said Buckingham. “There’s no notice so you really don’t know when the courts will be available. I think it’s more of an inconvenience to the Drexel students who are looking to play whenever they can.”
Oller and Jesperson say that they recognize the conflicts that have arisen from these court reservations, and have some policies in place to try and counteract it.
“We typically limit an outside group to one day per week in those spaces so that we can prioritize student use (group, recreational, and open play). While it is difficult to leave spaces wide open at all times, as there are many clubs and student groups who would like to use them, we do make an effort to preserve a few days without programming so that students can take advantage of the facilities for pick-up.”
Despite this statement, there are instances where the same external group has reserved court time on multiple days of the same week, according to publicly available court schedules reviewed by The Triangle.
Drexel Recreation acknowledges that this is an issue, and are working on a more permanent solution.
“We recognized earlier this spring that court space on Buckley Tennis Courts at 34th Street had become an issue with new intramural offerings, club practices, as well as 1-2 outside rentals. To address this, we will be moving some of our recreational programming to the courts at the Vidas Athletic Complex, which will free up some additional time on the Buckley Courts.”
While this may relieve some of the congestion from courts, it does not resolve the problem at the core of this issue: Drexel is renting out its limited recreation facilities to external groups at the expense of students.
Space at the Buckley tennis and volleyball courts is already hard to come by during the spring and summer as thousands of students vie to use them every day. Sometimes, students can be left waiting for over an hour for their turn to play a game of tennis, pickleball or volleyball. This waiting can all be for naught, though, if it happens to run into the time where the courts have been rented out to an external group.
It is incumbent upon Drexel Recreation to prioritize student usage of these limited facilities as their current policy has insufficiently addressed the issue in the eyes of the student body.