It was closed for several years, but when the Hagerty Gymnasium on the California State University, Channel Islands campus reopened Wednesday, it came back to life within minutes.

Shortly after school officials cut the large, red ribbon spanning the gym doors, the stair-steppers were in motion, the basketballs were bouncing and the squeak of sneakers echoed across the gym walls.

"I love it," said CSUCI student Richie Garcia, a senior business major who was practicing his basketball shots in a one-minute shooting contest.

The gymnasium was closed after Camarillo State Hospital shut down in 1996. It was named for Dr. Thomas W. Hagerty, who was superintendent when the hospital opened in 1936.

University officials, who are slowly remodeling the former hospital site, began working on the gym about six months ago. Before the facility reopened, the gym floor was refurbished, and the old stage was torn out and replaced with a fitness center overlooking the basketball courts. About $100,000 worth of new exercise equipment, including free weights, cardiovascular machines and circuit-training equipment, was brought in.

Intramural basketball and volleyball tournaments and other contests and challenges are being planned in the facility. Use of the gym and fitness center is free for students.

"This is an opportunity for all of us to come together as faculty, as staff, as students, to work out and to just have fun," said Gregory Sawyer, vice president for student affairs.