Members of varsity athletic teams are allowed to use the weight rooms at the Murr Center--which was just opened last year.

"You can walk down some of the hallways in the MAC and it looks like an asylum, with its painted-over windows and exposed pipe fixtures," Watson says. "It's disgusting. I really don't see Harvard doing much to promote the fitness of its students."

Rosenthal readily admits that the MAC is too antiquated to meet student needs.

"The MAC isn't a modern facility, and the Murr Center doesn't meet everybody's needs," Rosenthal says. "There probably is a disconnect between promotion [of fitness activities] and physical resources."

These complaints come even after the University upgraded the cardiovascular equipment in the MAC last year, a move that some feel didn't go far enough.

"It may have made a small difference," says Gavin L. Delany '01, "but I don't really use Stairmasters, so it didn't affect me."

Yet despite wide-ranging complaints about the MAC and other athletic facilities, some students had more positive things to say about the resources devoted to non-athletes at the College.

"I think the MAC weight room is under-equipped, but in general there are plenty of other facilities," says Kyle L. Clayton '00, a devotee of the Mather House gym. "Outside of actual weights, there are a lot of options. It's not something that I've ever felt cheated about."