SEATTLE — Declining student participation and a down economy prompted Seattle University to cancel its decade-long personal training rec center program.
“The cost was $50 per hour, $30 per half hour, and so that became cost ineffective for the students,” Kristen Christopher, Seattle University strength and fitness coordinator, told the school's student newspaper.
During the fall of 2008, the personal training program began seeing a decline in participation, reflecting industry-wide economic trends, former trainer Carol Lorenz told student reporters. During the past school year, the program had no more than four students in it at a given time, Christopher said, compared with about 1,200 daily visitors to the center. Christopher also told the newspaper that the personal training program probably would be reinstated in a new format, using student trainers who charge students lower rates.