Betsy Bruce is in her sixth year as director of recreational sports, managing Oberlin’s athletic facilities and activities. She sat down with the Review late this week to talk about the status of intramurals and general athletic goings-on at the College.

Can you tell me what it is exactly you do?
[laughs] I laugh at that one because it’s difficult. My title is director of recreational sports and my job description is almost two full pages. I oversee the facilities, which means I’m the contact person when somebody knocks on the door and says, “Did you know that the toilet is overflowing? That the lights over there aren’t working? That the pool temperature is X, Y or Z?” Also a huge part of the facility is scheduling Phillips, and Jones, the Heisman Club Field House and Hales. And most of that involves students coming to me at the end of the previous semester, particularly about Hales and asking for it for a Friday night concert or Saturday night seminar. So that’s definitely a time-consuming and interesting one. It’s a fun one too, though, because I feel like I’m a facilitator for student organizations to get their events off the ground. Not necessarily to coordinate the events, but to give them a space. And I know that space is really tight on this campus.

And you oversee intramurals also?
Yep, I have those. I’ve been involved with club sports, too. I would also call myself the Aquatic Director. The climbing wall is mine to oversee, to make sure it’s staffed and that staff is trained.

On top of all that I’m doing the thing I probably love the most, which is teach. I teach all the aquatic stuff: beginning swimming, a water safety instructor class, lifeguarding. I also teach two sections of squash.

Do you feel like students use the gym to the degree that they should?
I mean, there are parts that are always very busy, like the cardio equipment. But I would love to see more people playing racquetball and squash. I mean, all you need is one partner. I wish we could get a system where we really attract the first-years and sophomores. Most of the time the students in my class have that extra credit they need, or half credit. A lot of seniors. And I want to say, “Ah, you’ve missed the boat. Where have you been for three years?” It’s great for stress reduction, wellness. If we could get students up here as first-years learning how to play badminton and racquetball, or to swim, I would love that. We have all of these facilities and I want people to use them.

Students are upset as of late about the amount of attention they feel the administration pays to intramural sports. Do you feel there’s any validity to this?
I’ll be very honest. I think intramurals isn’t a great program. It’s a good program. I’ve worked on two other campuses, and I have yet to hear students whine on this one, “There’s nothing to do.” At other schools the socializing was much more driven by alcohol and I don’t see that as much here. I think students here are overextended, whether it’s the drama, the music, the ExCos. My first year here I tried to offer everything and things like badminton, tennis, racquetball and squash just fell on their faces. And it’s true still. Our big programs are soccer, indoor soccer, four-on-four basketball and softball. Which in many ways is great because those are team sports, they’re very social and we get groups of people. When I look at the soccer rosters, there aren’t a lot of freshmen. The teams are mostly juniors and seniors. But the freshmen that do get involved play most of the four years they’re here.

And because of the space we have, intramurals haven’t had prime time. But no other institution I know of has the space that we have outdoors. Rugby has it’s own field, ultimate frisbee has two fields. There are two fields always reserved for soccer. And we can have all of those things going on from 4:30 to 6:30 which I think is pretty great.

So I think we’re doing a pretty good job, but not a great job. I mean, the interest has to come from the students. It has to be intrinsic. If you really want to do something, tell me about it and we’ll set up a time. There are things that I can do if I see the interest.