The Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, referred to by Dr. Money as “the Bank,” opened last Friday with the grand opening celebration, RecFest.
Now that the celebration is over and the facility is getting into a regular schedule. Kendyl McEachran, junior elementary education major from Albuquerque, had a frantic night Friday in her new position of desk worker at the Bank.
“RecFest was very busy but also extremely fun,” McEachran said. “It was crazy all night through six o’clock in the morning.”
As the facility transitions from the grand opening to the regular schedule of the school year, students are deciding which opportunities are most interesting to them. Brady Kile, a finance and marketing major from Ft. Worth, has explored the Bank more than five seperate times since RecFest, Kile said.
“I’ve used a lot of the weights and cardio equipment, and I did the bouldering wall, which was a lot of fun,” Kile said. “I’m really looking forward to playing racquetball and checking out the pools.”
The 16-month project was a long-awaited addition to campus.
“I used to have to hunt for open basketball courts,” said Jared Edwards, a sophomore business marketing major from Frisco. “But now I always have this available to me. It’s so much more convenient.”
For some students, the amount of space available in the 113,000 square-foot facility and the number of different activities it has to offer is the most enticing aspect of the new Rec Center, said Erik Soulek, a sophomore accounting major from San Antonio.
“I’ve walked around the entire building; it’s huge,” Soulek said.
Student traffic has been a concern for those working at the facility, McEachran said. McEachran advises students to visit in the morning, which is much less busy than afternoon.
“We’ve adjusted to the new influx of students coming in, improving and upgrading and buying more equipment to prepare for that,” McEachran said. “We’ve been running out of racquetball equipment a lot, and basketball and the bouldering wall have been really popular too.”
For more information on the Rec Center, please visit acu.edu/srwc.
