COLUMN: ARC and fields bring back old need
Over the last two and a half years, a planning committee of students, staff and administrators has been exploring the feasibility of creating new recreational facilities for students on the Logan campus. Many important issues have surfaced during the feasibility stage of this project. Two of the most salient have to do with the funding of the proposed recreational facilities and the expected benefits to students and USU.
With respect to funding, some students think that general student body fees should be used to hire more faculty and to provide needed classes instead of funding new recreational facilities. Unfortunately, this is not permissible. Simply put, state funding, tuition, private donations and research grants are used to fund faculty positions, classes and academic spaces. General student body fees are used to fund ancillary spaces and programs including recreational facilities, student activities, health and wellness centers and the like.
The idea to build student recreational facilities on the Logan campus is not new, but is based upon a similar proposal that was drafted nearly 12 years ago. Students voted at that time to support creating new recreational facilities because they understood the need to replace outdated and overcrowded facilities. What was recognized then as a significant student life problem has grown even more acute over the years as enrollment has continued to grow. Then, as well as now, the proponents of the project recognized the direct link between these types of facilities and student success. Moreover, the correlation between student success and the success of USU is also clear.
The current efforts’ promotional materials provide several key student success outcomes that are expected to accrue from the new Aggie Legacy Fields and the new Aggie Recreation Center (ARC).
These materials state, “The ARC will enhance the sense of community for students on the Logan campus and will provide expanded opportunities for student engagement. This new facility will also support USU’s new student recruitment outcomes and contribute to higher retention and graduation rates.”
Other general benefits are cited as follows: “improved emotional well-being, reduced stress, enhanced interaction among diverse groups of students (and) increased support for students’ academic and social life.”
These outcomes for universities are well established in the campus recreational sports research literature. For example, a recent study published by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) explored the impact of college recreation centers on the recruitment of new students.
The authors of the study stated, “College students are seeking out dynamic recreation opportunities at the top of their list of expectations when deciding to attend a college.”
The study found that universities with recently built recreation centers enjoyed an average increase in enrollment of 7.3 percent over a 2-3 year period following the opening of the new center. Conversely, similarly situated universities that had not made investments in a new recreation center experienced an average decline in enrollment of 5.3 percent during the same period.
The benefits of investing in new recreation facilities are not limited to increased new-student enrollment. Enhanced student success, including stronger retention and improved academic performance, has also been linked to participation in campus recreation sports activities. In a study published by the professional organization Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, the relationship between the use of recreation facilities, academic performance and the persistence of first-time freshmen was explored.
The study found that “(o)n average, the SRC (Student Recreation Center) users earned higher first-semester GPAs and first-year cumulative GPAs (CGPAs) and accumulated slightly more earned hours both in the first semester and at the end of the first year.”
In addition, the study states, “Persistence rates for SRC users for one semester (92 percent) and one year (71 percent) clearly outpaced that of their nonuser counterparts (86 percent and 64 percent respectively).”
What’s more, the study states, “As the number of (SRC) visits increased, parallel increases in both first-semester and first-year GPA and persistence occurred …”
Students who used the SRC 1-4 times during the semester posted a first-semester persistence rate of 90 percent and a first-year persistence rate of 69 percent. Students who visited the SRC 50 or more times during the semester posted a first-semester persistence rate of 93 percent and a first-year persistence rate of 75 percent, according to the study.
Other recent studies have confirmed the connection between participation in campus recreation sports programs and an increased sense of belonging and community.
In an April 2011 study published in Recreational Sports Journal, researchers found that “Students who participated in campus recreational sports programs were significantly less lonely and less stressed than students who never participated in campus recreational sports.”
The authors of the study went on to posit the reason for this: “Regular participation in campus recreation provides social opportunities; these social opportunities may reduce the likelihood of loneliness and may explain why participants in campus recreational sports perceived a greater sense of community.”
Regardless of the underlying reasons, it is clear that new recreational facilities provide great benefits for students and, in turn, for the universities that build them. The studies I have cited present some compelling reasons for why the proposed new Aggie Legacy Fields and the new Aggie Recreation Center should be regarded as needed and very timely additions to the Logan campus community.