This is a petition to open Wiegand Gym to public use for more time. For most of us, basketball is one of the main things we look forward to doing in order to relieve stress and relax, and is crucial to our mental and physical health. Furthermore, basketball is important for us in the social aspect of our student lives, as it is a great way for us to make friends and engage with other students. Unfortunately, it has become an increasingly common occurrence where Wiegand Gym is completely reserved from 4:30 to closing time, which means that most people cannot have that experience as they have classes during the day. While we understand in-season varsity sport need to have practice, Wiegand is increasingly being reserved for out-of-season sports for "practice" multiple hours a day multiple days a week. In addition, there are some recreational organizations that reserve the court for basketball for only their select "club" instead of just going during open gym hours, further limiting the availability of the gym. We the general student population would like our needs to be valued EQUALLY as varsity athletes or other student organizations, instead of being treated like an afterthought. We pay the same amount of tuition as everyone else, and are deserving of such rights. Thus, we petition that the gym be made a lot more available to the student population, so that we know our needs matter as well.