Fitness centre on campus in Southern Denmark
In September last year the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) opened a new fitness centre on the campus in Odense. Five months later, the 900-square-metre centre has about 1,000 student members and 150 staff members.
The secret behind the success is cooperation between the students and the management, says Patrick Rune Shanahan Henry, a student of law who is the chair of SDU Fitness.
“The fitness centre is one of many success stories based on a constant and positive dialogue between the management and students. The university helps to facilitate these projects and makes premises available, enabling us to design new activities for the students. The idea for the centre actually came from our university director, Jacob Schmidt. He saw the potential. We students got involved at a later stage. Both students and staff use the new fitness centre, and at peak periods there are so many people there that opening a second centre on campus doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea,” says Henry.
Translated by Nicholas Wrigley