Lucas A. Cook Assessing Student Habits, Needs, and Motivations for Campus Recreation Programming and Service Provision Lucas A. Cook Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to assess the recreation habits and understand motivations of users and nonusers of Illinois State University's Student Fitness Center based on gender in order to evaluate the center's services and programming Methodology and Instrumentation: A population sample yielded 885 Illinois State University students (271 male and 614 female) Findings and Conclusions: The results of the study indicated significant differences between male and female preferences, attitudes, and behaviors. It was revealed that female participants were more likely to be influenced to participate in recreation than male participants by several factors, including staff knowledge, enthusiasm, professionalism, facility safety and accessibility, and availability of space and equipment. Variety of programs and services offered and facility cleanliness showed the largest mean difference between male and female participants. Both male and female participants indicated that other time commitments were the most influential on their decision to or not to participate in Campus Recreation programming and/or services. Male participants preferred Male Only, Weekend Tournaments, and Weekly Tournament program formats while female participants preferred Female Only and Group Class program formats. Results indicated that female participants viewed Flyers and the Campus Recreation Website, Program Guide, and Facebook page as more preferable vehicles for Campus Recreation information than male participants. These findings have implications for recreational sports providers in how they create and market services and programming for male and female patrons. Amount of Influence on Participation in Campus Recreation Male Female MSD M p Awareness of programs/services Interest in activities offered Quality of programs/services Variety of programs/services Cost to participate Other time commitments Cleanliness of facility Availability of space Availability of equipment Variety of equipment Staff knowledge Staff professionalism Staff enthusiasm Facility safety Facility accessibility Customer service provided Preference for Hearing About Campus Recreation Male Female MSD M p Flyers Campus Recreation Website Campus Recreation Program Guide Campus Recreation Facebook page Campus Recreation cable channel Student Fitness Center digital signage Word of mouth Vidette Twitter A 45 question survey was administered, utilizing open-ended, categorical, multiple choice, and Likert scale items. Independent-Samples T-Test procedures were utilized to determine differences in student preferences based on an alpha level set at ≤ 0.05 Students’ Preferred Program Format Male Female MSD M p Individual informal Doubles/with partner informal Group of friends informal Group classes Male only Female only Co-rec Weekend tournaments One-day events Weekly leagues Open lap swim Faculty Advisors| Brent A. Beggs, Ph.D. Daniel J. Elkins, Ph.D.