‘Aggie Rec Center’ gets new name as plans roll forward
The recreation center project students voted on last spring has changed names. Formerly called the Aggie Recreation Center, the project has been renamed to the Aggie Life and Wellness Center, said James Morales, vice president for student services at USU.
“When you think about recreation in a traditional sense, you think about just going out and having fun,” Morales said, “While that’s an important component of it, there are more elements that we hope the center will provide for students.”
The planned center will provide a new setting for students to socialize, Morales said.
“We hope that this really becomes the focal point for connections that students will make with each other,” he said.
Under student legislation passed spring semester 2012, students are required to pay $25 per semester as part of student fees to pay for the artificial turf installation at Legacy Fields, next to the HPER field. With the same ballot item, students also authorized a $75 per-semester fee to pay for the ALWC. The project is expected to cost $30 million. The ALWC will not be available for use by academic courses or athletics program, said Campus Recreation Director Kevin Kobe.
Though the ALWC project will be funded by student fees and private contributions, to see fruition the project must be approved by the state legislature, Morales said. The legislature will review the project’s application in February, he said, and the upcoming legislative session provided another motive for the ALWC project name change.
The University of Utah submitted a similar application recently, Morales said, and Student Services officials learned from its experience.
“Based on some feedback we got from the University of Utah,” he said, “the legislature was not really keen on the term ‘recreation.’ They advised us to choose something that would maybe not meet with some negative reaction from the state legislature.”
In 2000, USU students voted to build new recreational facilities, but the legislature didn’t approve the project. The ALWC project has marked advantages over the similar 2000 project, Morales said.
“What was proposed back then was a fitness center, basically, on campus, not a life and wellness center – a more expanded version,” Morales said. “That was looked on by legislators and business owners, who lobbied the legislators, as direct competition that wasn’t acceptable.”
Local fitness-related businesses have had time to establish their clientele, and the valley’s population has grown, he said.
USU’s aging exercise facilities may also help persuade legislators to approve the project.
“Time is on our side, in that our facilities are 10 years older and that much further behind,” he said.
The name change also reflects a Student Services goal to move the Student Health and Wellness Center to the proposed ALWC, he said. In 2001, the Student Wellness Center and Student Health Services programs moved into a building formerly occupied by a surgery clinic. Morales said the programs moved away from the center of campus because the Taggart Student Center was running out of space.
Morales said he wanted to move the wellness center back to “the heart of the campus where the majority of students could go for an appointment in between classes.”
If the legislature approves the building, the project will enter a year-long design phase, Kobe said, and students will provide input through focus groups and surveys during the design phase. If all goes according to plan, the contractors will begin construction in April 2014 and the facility will be open for fall semester 2015, he said.
Karson Kalian, ASUSU athletics and campus recreation vice president, said a student policy board will determine use guidelines for the Legacy Fields and ALWC.
“We’re hoping that by creating a policy board, students will be able to govern the rules and regulations of the fields and recreation center,” Kalian said.
The board will be comprised of 15 students and one administrative committee member, Kalian said, and students interested in applying for a position on the board can contact him via email at karson.kalian@gmail.com
– steve.kent@aggiemail.usu.edu