​THE LEACH CENTER

Starting out this project, there was not much to deal with involving the Leach Center except the basic information about the facility itself. This lead to developing my own structured floor plan of the space and from then on capturing the population in use of what the facility has supplied. Through observation, my research developed into an insight of why people attend, whether that is for racket ball, weights, cardio, etc. This lead me on to questioning though, does the space contribute more to the making of the culture versus the population? For a gym isn’t a gym without the equipment needed, but a gym isn’t a gym without motivated people to use the equipment provided. This became a complication in my research, which delve me into looking more into the social aspects of what the Leach Center had to offer. More specifically, I needed to know the motivations of those coming in and why.

 

With several interviews and survey questions, it became apart the diverse motivations of those who come to the gym – ranging from maintaining fitness for sports, getting back in shape, attending for sports usage, etc. The motivations of the population helped understand the development of the culture the Leach Center has come into; not only is it a space that provides opportunity but the people take opportunity provided and help create a functioning culture. This perspective, a vital key term in any research, looks thoroughly into the kind of culture that any space and population can contour and build. Yet, another complication at mind was what the population said about the culture itself. To answer this I approached the inner most thoughts of the people themselves through the use of social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). This provided an inner look into the perspective of the individuals who go to the gym and to see their initial thoughts about the space itself, and their own involvement in it. You get to physically see their involvement through pictures (racket ball, basketball, battle ship, etc.) and get a real understanding of their motivations to go through their words, a beautiful sight for my research. Yet, it was interesting to point out the attire choices in the pictures and compare that to my observations, realizing that their clothing said a lot about them aside from their own social media.

 

It became apparent of those who were involved in campus aside from attending the Leach Center – shirts having sorority/fraternity letters, club names, and so on. This led me to wonder, can the role in one particular culture contribute to the overall culture of FSU? It was interesting to approach clothing as to answering such a question but in retrospect it answers it completely. A shirt with a simple logo shows their motivations aside from the Leach Center, truly displacing the diversity of the population within this facility. You see far past their initial fitness motivations and look into their other involvements on campus, realizing that they attend here and also aspire somewhere else – meaning sports, student government, etc. Therefore showing that even though they attend such a simple culture on campus, that they can contribute theirs efforts into other aspects that involve the overall FSU campus.

 

I find this research can be significant for other researchers for this culture is not usually seen at upmost importance of campuses aside from actual sports, student clubs, etc. There wasn’t a map of the Leach before this, which could help with new comers or those wishing to know what is provided. The observations help understand the outlook of the population and see into the development of their motivations through the use of fitness, and develop perspective about it. The research also provides an insight to the realities of the social motivations to attend the gym that coming from the pressure of different sources – the media, fraternities, sports, etc. Also, you get to see more into the involvement the space has to provide aside from basic working out – there being a pool, basketball courts, and so on for actual intramural sports usage. Showing that both the space itself and the population develop the culture of what is the Leach Center aside from its outer perspective of another gym to attend.