Officials at the Student Recreation Center say the numbers of students taking advantage of extended weekend hours are disappointingly low, and the privilege may not be available in the future.

At the beginning of the semester, the center extended its closing time to midnight on Friday and Saturday to provide students with alternatives to Carbondale bars, Bill McMinn, director of the center, said.

In the past, closing time was at 8 p.m., and the latest hour the Rec remained open was at 10 p.m.

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Extending hours was part of a university-wide effort to provide alternatives for students on Friday and Saturday nights, McMinn said. We factored into that equation.

Gary Tisdale, coordinator of marketing for Intramural Recreational Sports, said the extended hours are an advantage to students.

This is a direct benefit to students, Tisdale said. We didn’t raise the student recreation fee. It’s not costing students any more to use the facilities this semester than it did last semester.

Efforts to encourage students to take advantage of the extended hours have been numerous, Tisdale said.

We’ve distributed fliers around on and off-campus residence halls and dining facilities, notified all the resident assistants, Tisdale said. We even distributed use it or lose it’ signs, but still nothing.

Bryan Lukes, assistant director of facilities, said that a combination of things are responsible for the low attendance.

Students have other programs, other interests, Lukes said. Our plans are to keep the extended hours in place up until spring break. Students asked for a place to go on the weekends. We’re going to hold up our end of the deal.

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Tisdale said he encourages everyone to take advantage of the opportunity before it is gone.

I challenge the fraternities, the sororities, faculty and staff and the student population in general to use the services, he said. There is a possibility that we could end up shortening the hours back.