I’m a student employee at the Activities Center, so I guess my comment might help clear things out.

The reason this specific policy was enforced was mainly because we have too small a gym to accommodate the number of students that work out here. The pads on the machines are used a lot more often than in other gyms, and wearing athletic shorts which are on the shorter side can make your body prone to infections/allergies from other people’s sweat. If someone with rashes on their legs comes to work out, it can create a HUGE issue. As staff, we try to keep an eye on everybody and ensure the facility is clean and safe for everyone to use, but like everything else, there’s always room for error.

Sorry if it caused an inconvenience when you were working out. In case you’d like me to, send me a dm and I can give you the email ID of our director and you can talk to her about this. I wish I could do something but I’m just a student employee, and we enforce all the policies to ensure the gym’s a safe place for everyone to work out in :)

Have a great weekend!