Front door at IM East in East Lansing, on Jan. 30th 2026
As Michigan State University prepares to open its new Student Recreation and Wellness Center this spring — and potentially demolish the half-century-old IM West — students are growing frustrated with the state of another campus recreational facility.
IM East, which first opened in 1989, serves as the primary recreational space for students living on the east side of campus. Despite its prominence in campus life, students told The State News that broken lockers, frequent machine breakdowns, outdated equipment, and overcrowding are regular occurrences at the facility.
Human biology junior Carson Ferry, who works on the custodial staff, said employees frequently hear complaints about broken equipment and ongoing maintenance issues.
“We hear complaints all the time, especially about broken cable machines and lockers,” Ferry said, nodding to a sign deterring people from using the right wall of broken lockers.
“There’s not much we can do about it unless the university replaces the equipment,” Ferry added.
Since its first opening, the facility has only undergone one renovation, when the track was replaced in 2017, said Kat Cooper, the communications director for MSU's office of student life and engagement. The university has plans to revisit an IM East renovation, but there is no solid timeline, she said.
Cooper added that the university is “working on a couple of different solutions for the issues with lockers,” and that equipment from IM West could be moved over to IM East to alleviate concerns with outdated equipment.
While replacing equipment from one gym to another would precede a comprehensive renovation of IM East, student employees said that second-hand equipment alone wouldn't do much to help.
“All of the equipment we get is already hand-me-downs from IM West or IM Circle,” said another IM East worker, supply chain management senior Alana Sierra. “So a lot of it is pretty old.”
Sierra also said she worries that the overcrowding will only get worse following the demolition of IM West, even though the new recreation center meant to replace the facility will be significantly larger. The new center will be 293,000 square feet, while IM West is 190,000 square feet.
“I don’t really get why they would tear (IM West) down—having it in such a central location makes it less crowded here,” said Sierra.
Cooper said the decision to tear down IM West stems from a recent facilities assessment, which concluded that, due to asbestos and other safety hazards, the cost of renovating the facility would exceed the cost of demolition.
