Petition is addressed to: Studierenden und Mitarbeitenden der Universität Stuttgart sowie weitere Nutzer:innen des Kraftraumes

Against the closure and cancelation of the university gym – For active inclusion, encounters and solidarity
 
Dear Dr. Haag,
Dear members of the university management,
Dear representatives of staff, students and doctoral candidates,
 
With great dismay, we learned of the planned closure of the university gym. This decision is not only a bitter setback for the users directly affected. Still, it is also symbolic of a development that contradicts the university's claim to be a university of exchange, solidarity, inclusion and community.
 
The gym is much more than a place for sport. It is a meeting place – a place where students, doctoral candidates and academic and technical staff come together daily. Discussions, contacts and community arise here across interdisciplinary and interfaculty boundaries. People from a wide variety of backgrounds learn from and support each other - inclusion and exchange are not just proclaimed here, they are practised.
 
Several hundred users are regularly active in the gym. The proximity to their place of study or work and the flexible opening hours enable many to integrate sport into their often busy everyday lives. Particularly at a time when mental and physical health are increasingly becoming the focus of attention, as demonstrated by numerous UniGesund campaigns, the closure of such a highly frequented, health-promoting and low-threshold facility seems simply contradictory.
 
For projects such as “Glow up our Campus”, funds are being used - and quite rightly so - to transform the campus into a creative meeting space. The gym is already such a place. A space that does not need to be designed, but has been naturally living what is propagated in glossy brochures and on social media for years: Solidarity, diversity, openness and togetherness.