West campus fitness complex ready for incoming students

Editor's note: As ASU gears up for the start of classes this week, our reporters are spotlighting scenes around its campuses. To read more, click here.

The enormous verdant quad, a point of pride on Arizona State University’s West campus, is empty, save for a few sputtering sprinklers and the sorrowful crooning of Lana Del Rey lamenting her “Summertime Sadness.”

The crooning comes from speakers on the Sun Devil Fitness Complex, which flanks the southern border of the quad. But the song’s theme is perhaps a bit incongruous with the current atmosphere. Despite the present stillness, Casey Monroe knows what is coming: a barrage of energetic students ready to dive headfirst into another semester at ASU's West campus.

“Right now, it’s still a transitioning period,” said Monroe, a senior student worker at the fitness complex. But, she assures, come Thursday (the first day of classes for the fall 2015 semester), there will be hundreds filling the now nearly vacant facility.

Astrid Samaniego, a junior majoring in communications with a minor in Spanish, is one of about 15 students taking advantage of these early, slower-paced days of move-in week when places like the fitness complex can be had almost all to one’s self.

Samaniego doesn’t live on campus, but she wanted to come check out the facility anyway. She’s excited for the semester to begin and is looking forward to more of a “university feel” at West campus after transferring from Estrella Mountain Community College.

Though the indoor track and basketball court below are free of squeaky sneakers, the rows of high-tech workout equipment are mostly silent and the six-lane swimming pool outdoors is uncharacteristically placid, a mere three days’ time will change all of that.

Fitness-complex student worker Michael Imperial’s eyes light up as he describes the plethora of various inflatable activities scheduled for RecIgnite, which will take place from 7 to 10 p.m.Thursday, Aug. 20.

He describes an inflatable screen to be used for karaoke and a movie screening at the pool, an inflatable shooting range, stand-up paddle boarding and “tons of free stuff.”

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Imperial says.

Students interested in the event can check it out online, among several other Fall Welcome events, here.