This year, students and community members have a voice in what they hear and see in the Student Wellness and Recreation Center.

The Department of Recreation has unveiled the results of an August entertainment survey. The survey asked individuals their preferred genre of music and favorite television stations. It also requested that respondents give the likely time block they would be there. The results indicate what styles of music will be predominantly featured through the center’s speakers this year per each time block.

Of the 4,694 people who received the survey, a total of 296 responded among the four time blocks.

Most students, however, echoed that they are not prejudiced against any one style of music. The hip-hop pounding through the sound system from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., for example, would not drive Shawn Samek away. The 20-year-old construction management major said he would still be out shooting hoops on the basketball court while ignoring the overhead noise.

In fact, at the recreation center early Thursday morning, several people had portable music devices of their own, exercising to their own beat. One was Cliff Bliss, a 64-year-old retired Kent State professor and self-described “morning person.” He finished his last laps on the indoor track with an iPod and ear buds.

“I work out in the morning,” he said, “so if I don’t get it in then, I never will.”

Being a visitor to the center nearly everyday, Bliss found ignoring the televisions to be slightly difficult. However, having his iPod handy while stuck in front of the televisions for an hour, alleviated all that is around him. Plus, he joked, “the televisions make the boredom of the treadmill and bike less.”

Another frequent recreation center user, Heather Caldwell, the assistant professor of biological studies, put her indifference to the findings of the survey much more blunt.

“Music does not dictate the time I come to the Rec Center,” Caldwell said.

Contact Daniel Moore at [email protected].