A petition to tell Brandeis’ administration that Brandeisians want a “new and refurbished Weight Room at Gosman” has circulated throughout the Brandeis community recently. This petition is the work of the “Weight Room Renovation Project,” which consists of Aaryuj Trehan ’24, Andrew Parisi ’24, Cyriac Joyce ’24, Darren Nguyen ’24, Isabella Doulas ’24, Jacob Mikelberg ’24, Kevin Chen ’24, Mark Santi ’24, Mohammed Rahman ’24, Nathan Tran ’24, Sahil Muthuswami ’24 and Mo Re Kim ’24. Turning a critical, burning eye toward Gosman, the petition asserts that the “weight room … is in disarray and disrepair.” It continues, adding that “Broken weights, old and unsafe equipment, all leave a mark on the weight room, and discourages use by the Brandeis community. Brandeis Students are concerned about their safety and discomfort using the decade plus old, rusting exercise equipment provided by Brandeis University.”
Specifically, the petition points out the following main problems: “Every barbell is rusted, 10+ years old and on the verge of breaking. Every barbell weight plate is either rusted, breaking down or broken. Every squat rack, bench press or exercise machine is at least a decade old and seems to be on the verge of falling apart. Many dumbbells are either lopsided or falling apart. Dumbbells do not go past 100 lbs.”
The petition has several demands of Brandeis’ administration, including “New Barbells, new weight plates, new squatting racks and benches, new exercise machines, replacing all other broken equipment, in addition to other renovations that would allow for the space to serve as a usable and safe space for the entire Brandeis community.”
The Brandeis Hoot interviewed Mo Re Kim, one of the petition’s key writers, who mentioned that the Gosman weight room has been in need of renovation for around a decade. He added that people have been getting hurt because of the equipment breaking during use, citing the rope cable attachment, dumbbells and bench presses as examples.
The petition, which has been circulating since at least Feb. 21 according to the document version history, has obtained more than 250 signatures from students. These include members of the 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 graduating classes and alumni from the 2022 graduating class.
