It has been two months since the official unveiling of the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, and the fitness hub is still going strong.
Brian Devost, executive director of the Rec Center, said the facility has housed a steady flow of students week after week.
“The outcome has been tremendous,” Devost said. “It has been everything we expected it to be and more.”
He said the new building had initial “growing pains,” in which several changes were made to cater to students’ needs and preferences. One recent change was the configuration of the exercise equipment on the main floor.
“We found that if we moved the machines around, it would open up space and accommodate more people,” Devost said. “Who knows, we might be working on a new configuration next month.”
Devost said he encourages students to provide feedback on the facility’s functionality.
“Keep letting us know,” Devost said. “We feed off of their input, and that’s how we operate.”
The Rec Center houses more than just avid gym-goers and exercise science students. This week, intramural volleyball and waterball brought hundreds of additional guests to the facility.
In one of the first waterball games of the season, Caroline Campbell, sophomore family studies major from Abilene, played for the Ko Jo Kai team in the Tuesday night game against Alpha Kai Plus.
As one of the team’s rovers, Campbell said she had to focus on continuously swimming to retrieve the ball and to pass it back and forth to her teammates. She said her defensive guarding even brought an opponent to tears.
“It was intense and so tiring,” Campbell said. “When they pulled me out of the pool my legs felt shredded.”
In addition to intramural games and her Thursday night skiing class, Campbell said enjoys using the facility for networking.
“Instead of going out to eat with your friends, you can be active and play volleyball with them,” Campbell said.
The Money Center is free to all ACU students. Since the Rec Fest grand opening on Sept. 2, hundreds of students have visited the fitness hub daily.
“I feel like I’ve met more people there than anywhere else,” Campbell said. “There’s always somebody you know, and they end up bringing their friends, too.”
Students can expect a new fitness center feature in the form of a “Wellness System Key,” which Devost said they hope to fully integrate into the campus community for next spring.
The key will keep track of workouts, log users’ workout efficiency and determine whether users have met their goals.
“The Wellness System Key is very intuitive and very popular,” Devost said. “You just put it in, and it remembers all your settings. It’s a very complex system.”
Devost said he believes this initiative will bring a lot of positive attention to ACU as the first university to use this system.
“The Student Recreation and Wellness Center really is a drawing card for students who are selecting universities for next year,” Devost said. “The more we can sculpt the facility, the better it’ll be down the road.”
