Home to the Elwood N. “Al” Shields Field House, a two-floored Fitness Center (featuring a weight room and a cardio room), and the Falcon-favorite Currito restaurant, the Dana Center’s opening signifies Bentley’s full commitment to its bold and all-encompassing reopening plan which was strategically set forth during the summer. Regardless of the COVID-induced circumstances and changes that have handstricken high-population establishments such as universities worldwide, the Dana Center’s reopening allows for a significant step toward the ‘return to normalcy’—a hackneyed term in recent months—that on-campus students are desperately craving. It also allows for a necessary avenue through which students, faculty, and other campus members have the ability to maintain their physical and mental well-being, while also being able to diversify their dining options beyond what Bentley’s upper-campus has to offer.
Though the Dana Center’s opening may seem like nothing short of the pre-COVID norm, there are an array of guidelines, procedures, and behind-the-scenes work that has taken place in order for its opening to become even a remote possibility.
Fitness Center Procedures:
The weight room and cardio rooms that are housed in the Fitness Center currently abide by the following guidelines in order to maintain their status as being open to Bentley’s on-campus population:
There is a maximum capacity of 15 participants in each floor of the Fitness Center.
Participants are required to sign up for 45 minute time slots before exercising through an online sign-up program (designating whether they would like to use the weight room or the cardio room).
Upon check-in, participants must have their temperatures measured, with ‘passing’ temperatures being set at any reading below 100.4 degrees fahrenheit.
The Fitness Center is closed during the last 15 minutes of each hour for intensive cleaning.
With the Fitness Center’s current hours set for Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, there are ten ‘exercising shifts’ available to exercise-craved students and faculty on a daily basis. As mentioned, these shifts each last for 45 minutes in order to allow for the Fitness Center’s two floors to be cleaned with an electrostatic sprayer during the last 15 minutes of each hour.
As the number of daily exercising participants continues to grow, the Dana Center will strategically adjust its hours in order to accompany the desired number of participants in one day’s time. Regardless of the demand concerning Fitness Center use, the maximum capacity of 15 participants per floor will not change unless the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ COVID-19 guidelines are adjusted.
Please note: Although the Fitness Center is currently open, the Field House is not.
Currito Procedures:
Arguably Bentley’s most-popular on-campus dining offering (depending on who one asks) currently abides by the following guidelines in order to maintain its status as being open to Bentley’s on-campus population:
Orders must be placed through GrubHub, with the restaurant offering patrons contactless pick-up.
Meals are served in single-use containers with reusable storage containers not being accepted, and silverware and condiments are safely prepackaged.
Restaurant seating offerings are currently arranged in accordance with proper social distancing with green check marks outlining appropriate locations to sit.
Patrons, who are to follow directional walking signs when picking up orders, must wear face coverings at all times until properly seated (in addition, a variety of dining tents are available throughout Bentley’s campus).
(Image courtesy of Sam Stallings)
Straying slightly from the hours that the Fitness Center is available to the on-campus population, Currito is open Sunday through Thursday from 12:00 PM to 11:00 PM, Fridays from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and Saturdays from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
The difference in hours from those that the Fitness Center follows is designed to account for the high demand of Currito’s dining services to those who are on campus—in the minds of some, this disparity may further signify the need for the Fitness Center to be available to the entirety of Bentley’s population.
A seemingly insignificant step in the eyes of those not involved with the planning and orchestration of Bentley’s reopening process, the Dana Center’s return to serving as one of the cornerstones of on-campus life at Bentley is wholly significant. In a season in which the world appears to be filled with turmoil and dangers around every corner, Bentley Falcons can rest assured in knowing that their university continues to take steps towards offering them some semblance of security and stability in an uncertain global climate.
Comentários