Try Before You Buy at the ARC

If your New Year’s resolutions have anything to do with exercise, then you may want to consider the Activities and Recreation Center and its quarterly Try Before You Buy promotion.

Winter quarter’s Try Before You Buy is scheduled from Jan. 2 to 9. During this time, all staff, faculty, alumni, retirees and student affiliates are invited to try the ARC for free, with full access to all equipment and resources.

Try Before You Buy’s free trial memberships also provide access to all group exercise classes, and, starting Jan. 3, all instructional dance classes, martial arts classes and Pavilion Fitness Studio classes — provided space is available.

If you decide to buy after you try, the ARC’s “university membership” fee (for staff, faculty, alumni, retirees and student affiliates) is $340 per year (or $28.33 a month via payroll deduction, for staff and faculty). Community memberships for nonalumni are available for $430 annually.

Class fees are as follows, per quarter: $45 for group exercise, $42 for dance, $60 for martial arts, $45 to $60 for mind-body (yoga, Pilates) and $36 for TRX Suspension Training. Campus Recreation maintains an online system for payment of class fees.

Students always have free access to the ARC; during Try Before You Buy, students also receive free access to the same classes as staff, faculty, alumni, retirees and student affiliates.

More information.

Stuffed animals and papermaking

The Craft Center’s winter schedule includes classes in stuffed animals, glass casting and bookbinding, as well as three new offerings: papermaking, pinhole photography and felting.

The center, housed in the South Silo, offers more than 100 classes in all, ranging from one-day workshops to seven-week courses. Click here for the complete schedule.

Registration is scheduled to begin Jan. 3 — online and in person, or by telephone. That same day, the center will host an orientation session for new volunteers, from 5:15 to 6 p.m.

The center is closed for winter break until the first day of registration; hours starting that day are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends.

The center and its classes are open to all students, staff and faculty, as well as the general public (ages 18 and up). There is no priority registration for students.

To use the online system, you must have created a profile in Campus Recreation's Online Store.

After doing so, or, if you already have created a profile, click on the Craft Center tab in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the page. Then, browse the classes and sign up, and be prepared to pay by credit card.

Note: The winter quarter classes will not be displayed until Jan. 3. And, when any class fills up, it will be removed from the list.

For upper level classes (such as furniture building), you must call the Craft Center, (530) 752-1475, to obtain permission codes; this is to ensure that you are qualified to take the particular upper level class or classes that you may be interested in.

If registering by phone, keep in mind that the phone lines are very busy the first day of registration.

More information, including the class schedule and the form for mail-in registration. Questions? Call (530)-752-1475 or send an e-mail to craftcenter@campusrec.ucdavis.edu.