The women’s general locker room in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center reopened last Thursday after almost two months of renovations. The process involved the creation of new varsity team locker rooms as well as a gender inclusive locker room space. 

In the first of many emailed updates, Senior Associate Athletic Director Tom Rand notified registered locker occupants on Nov. 14 to remove their belongings by 2 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2019 in order for the renovations to begin. Any belongings left behind would be discarded, Rand wrote.

The previous locker rooms were built with the building and had never been previously renovated, Director of Athletics Lauren Haynie wrote in a Jan. 14 email to the Justice. 

Haynie said the full renovation should be completed by the beginning of February, as there are still some lockers that need to be repaired. These lockers are marked with blue tape, according to a Jan. 8 email to locker occupants from Rand, who added that the locker room will be temporarily closed for “short periods of time” to complete the renovations that were set to be completed on Jan. 13. 

Throughout the renovation, students were able to use Gosman’s temporary locker room space, which is generally used by visiting teams. According to Rand’s emails, students were also welcome to use the locker room in the Linsey pool for the time being. 

In addition to the work being done to the women’s locker room, Haynie added “there was a smaller project in the men's locker room space to create a team room for one of our programs,” though it was not as extensive. She said that they were able to create a team room for the Brandeis fencing team out of existing storage space that was in the men’s general locker room. 

There are no plans to fully renovate the men’s locker room, Haynie said, but the Athletics department hopes to generate the necessary resources needed to fund additional facilities projects that will enhance the student experience. The timing of the women’s locker room renovation had to do with funding as well, Haynie wrote.

“We were able to create team rooms for each of our programs with the new team rooms including new lockers, flooring and paint,” Haynie said. “In addition, we were able to upgrade the flooring in many of the existing team rooms. There will be additional work over the next 2–3 years to upgrade the lockers and paint all team rooms.”

According to Rand, locker registrations from the old locker room did not carry over to the new locker room. To register a new locker, individuals are instructed to contact Athletics Department Coordinator Kerri Lebel.