The RamFit Center, located on the second floor of McMahon Hall, is slated to reopen for use by all Fordham students on Jan. 12, according to Joseph Scaltro, director of engineering services. After a one-year closure due to COVID-19, the gym reopened on Sept. 13, 2021, and remained accessible until renovations began on May 19, 2022, the day after most residents moved out for the summer break. Now, nine months later, the gym will once again be available for use, with expanded space and new equipment brought into the renovated facility.

The updated facility will feature three spaces added alongside the main fitness center which has been converted to a cardio room — two of the spaces being multipurpose studio rooms for dance and yoga which will have mirrors and television screens and one space will be a designated room for weights. 

According to Scaltro, the renovations also included the remodeling of the locker rooms and bathrooms, the installation of new flooring and upgraded air conditioning units throughout the facility, and an assortment of new equipment for the weight and cardio rooms. 

Although the facility was meant to be complete by Dec. 8, Scaltro noted that renovations will continue until Dec. 27 and will include remodeling the stairwell behind the mailroom that leads to McMahon Hall’s Outdoor Plaza entrance as well as construction work to renovate McMahon 109.

In collaboration with the Offices of Residential Life (ResLife) and Student Affairs, Scaltro noted in order to accommodate for the additional rooms, a decision had to be made to remove Health Services and the testing center. Health Services and the testing center, which were previously located in McMahon 205 and 206, respectively, are currently operating in room G-16 of the 140 West Building and Lowenstein South Lounge respectively.

Although the facility was meant to be complete by Dec. 8, Scaltro noted that renovations will continue until Dec. 27 and will include remodeling the stairwell behind the mailroom that leads to McMahon Hall’s Outdoor Plaza entrance as well as construction work to renovate McMahon 109. 

“Everything was beat up,” he said when speaking on the McMahon gym’s previous state. 

Scaltro added that “construction was raging” after residents left the residence hall for the summer and that work on the facility began immediately to keep up with the pace of the McMahon RamFit’s scheduled reopening. He added that he was initially struggling to make the Jan. 12 reopening due to the amount of construction work that needed to be done but now the facility is back on track to reopen in the spring. ResLife and Student Affairs are currently in conversation with Scaltro about how the gym will be unveiled. 

Some students have expressed their excitement regarding the unveiling of the upgraded RamFit Center, but they have also expressed their frustrations at the absence of a facility and the gym’s closure this semester, leading some to feel the need to purchase a gym membership.

Cesar Franco, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’26, shared that he is both enthusiastic about the RamFit Center and disappointed that the facility has been unavailable to members of the Fordham community for the entirety of the fall semester. 

“I think that the gym’s proximity to everything on campus will make it much more convenient for me to go, and I wish it was open sooner than this spring,” he said. “However, I am very excited to see the renovations and look forward to using the new equipment.”

Similarly, Tommy Crnjac, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) ’25, said that the gym’s closure this semester created a few obstacles for him this year. 

“I stopped working out as frequently as I used to,” he said. 

“Even though the Fordham gym is going to open soon, I never see myself going. I got a membership at Crunch; it’s not the best, but I had to.”   Yoyo Samson, GSBLC ’25

Since there was no gym available on campus for Crnjac to utilize, he purchased a gym membership to exercise. Crnjac mentioned his frustration in having invested in a paid gym subscription since there was already a facility on campus that was supposed to have been available to him. Despite this dissatisfaction, he noted that he is excited about the renovations and hopes that they will improve gymgoers’ experiences. 

“It is frustrating because I feel like I’m going the extra mile to use a facility that should already be accessible to me, especially on a college campus,” he said. “But I am glad that they are expanding and remodeling the gym; last year it felt really claustrophobic and the machines were just not the best, if I recall correctly.”

Yoyo Samson and Paula Preuss, both GSBLC ’25, also obtained gym memberships due to the gym’s closure and expressed similar frustrations to Crnjac. 

“Even though the Fordham gym is going to open soon, I never see myself going,” Samson said. “I got a membership at Crunch; it’s not the best, but I had to.”  

Samson noted that although the equipment at the Crunch gym is dated, he felt it was his only option since the McMahon gym was not available for community members to use.

Samson noted that although the equipment at the Crunch gym is dated, he felt it was his only option since the McMahon gym was not available for community members to use. He added that because he had already purchased this membership, he feels that it is “pointless” to start using Fordham’s new facility even though he had used it frequently prior to its closure.  

Preuss echoed similar sentiments to Samson and noted that she has already adjusted to the facility to which she bought a membership following the closure of the McMahon Gym and feels that it would be hard to transition to a new facility so late in the year

“I spend hundreds every month for a gym because it is worth the investment,” she said. “It is an expensive option, but I didn’t have any other choice really.” 

On Nov. 9, Jenifer Campbell, dean of students at Lincoln Center, sent an email to students announcing that free Ram Van passes would be provided to students who wished to utilize the fitness facilities at the Rose Hill campus. Interested students are required to go to the Office of Student Involvement from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday or 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday to sign up for passes.  

“We heard from students, and in response to student requests, we put it into existence,” she said. 

Scaltro added that the payoff of the renovations and the physical labor that went into the construction work to remodel the facility would be worth the months-long wait.

Scaltro acknowledged students’ struggles throughout the gym’s closure while also emphasizing that the renovations were more than a “paint job.”

“We simply needed time,” Scaltro said. “To get it done and miss one semester was all we could do.”

He added that the scale of renovations lengthened the time frame of the remodeling but acknowledged students’ frustrations with the lack of access to a gym at their campus. Scaltro noted that it was unfortunate to see that students who loved utilizing the gym did not have one on campus but that the timeline from May 2022 to January 2023 was the best option. 

“I can feel their pain; it’s hard when you lose something like that. That would’ve killed me as a college student to not have gym,” Scaltro said. “We were all aware of it; there was just no way to keep it open to do this renovation.” 

Scaltro added that the payoff of the renovations and the physical labor that went into the construction work to remodel the facility would be worth the months-long wait. 

“I feel bad that students who love the gym very much didn’t have one, but the return on investment is all the amenities we have. There was no fluff time here,” Scaltro said. 

The complete fitness center will still be unveiled and “fully operational” beginning Jan. 12 and will be open from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the weekends.

Since the RamFit gym at Rose Hill has a larger space and more equipment, Scaltro noted that his team had to accommodate for the existing conditions in place, which entails constructing around columns and other supportive infrastructure. 

“RamFit has a totally different set,” he said. “Here we are running under different conditions.”

In regard to the budget for the gym, Scaltro emphasized that the university allocated sufficient funds to proceed with the planned renovations for the facility but that the university had limited decisions for capital improvements. 

“The university did budget the amount of money I needed,” he said. “This project has been out there for a while, and we planned to do a budget which we had to go to the board of trustees for.” 

In an email sent from the Office of Student Involvement on Dec. 6, an update about the operational hours of the RamFit Center was announced as well as a “soft launch” of the cardio and weight rooms, which will be available for use from Dec. 12 to Dec. 20, on Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The complete fitness center will still be unveiled and “fully operational” beginning Jan. 12 and will be open from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the weekends. 

Scaltro noted that even though the renovations and work to remodel the new McMahon RamFit Center took longer than anticipated to finish, he is excited for what is to come and to see students use the facilities which his team has worked on for nearly nine months. 

“I’ve been here for 30 years. I’ve done a lot of things here, and I enjoy them all because I get to see everyone use them,” he said. “It gives me so much joy, so much instant gratification, and makes it all worthwhile.”