New wellness center enters design stages

The executive committee of the planning group for the planned new wellness center at West Campus met this past Monday to address various design options for the building. The group was joined via teleconference by the design team who gave a presentation of the different options for the facility.

Included in the plans will be an aquatics area, support zone, gymnasium, jogging track, sun deck and healing garden, along with space for Health Services, various classrooms and multipurpose rooms.

The outside layout that is being considered has two separate entrances to make the building more accessible to students.

“We wanted to make sure it wasn’t pushing people away and housed the opportunity to invite people into the center. We realize that people are going to be taking the shuttle and they are also going to be driving and the majority of the parking is going to be back there so we are wanting to accommodate that,” Student Government Association President Zach Mullins said.

Two groups – an executive body and a steering committee – comprised of faculty, staff and students, were created to help make design decisions.

“The steering committee is really the hands on, the nitty-gritty so that’s where it’s good that we’re on there as students so we can put that input where needed,” said SGA Sen. Evan Karanovich, a representative on the steering committee.

Student opinion is considered in every decision made regarding the center. Each class that is considered a stakeholder in the project has a representative. Mullins is the junior class representative, while sophomore Evan Karanovich and freshman Derek Jett represent their respective classes.

“Throughout the entire process, we are shooting to keep the student representatives on pretty much every committee meeting there is, whether it be the user groups, the steering committee or the executive committee,” Mullins said.

Last week, four smaller user groups were created to focus more specifically on each area of the facility, including the natatorium, the wellness and fitness area, the gym and multi-purpose area, and the health and counseling area.

“We’re sort of using this tiered structure of the whole design theme and the whole thing here on campus so that the day-to-day users and the people who will be administrating that area each day have direct say on what needs to be in there and what will best make that space be utilized for the students,” Mullins said.

There is a pretty concrete idea of where the building will be placed but progress is being made to get all of the plans finalized. They are looking to break ground on the project hopefully sometime this calendar year, according to Mullins.

Posted by Katelyn Hebert on Jan 22 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry