New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Quinnipiac’s new recreation center part of plan to ‘nurture the community’
HAMDEN — From a fitness center and dance studio to a smoothie station, rock garden and rock climbing wall, a new $45 million building at Quinnipiac University has it all.
“If I look familiar, I was the guy on the treadmill grasping for oxygen while all of you young people are exercising with your headphones on having a great time,” said Robert Potter, a trustees and a university alumnus.
Potter said when he first went to the gym, he immediately texted university President Judy Olian and Chief Experience Officer Tom Ellett that “I’m re-enrolling.”
University officials, along with students, faculty and local community members, officially opened the new Recreation and Wellness Center in a ribboncutting ceremony Friday, with the goal of providing students with “social, emotional and physical well-being support.”
“You’ve got to take yoga or spin classes or mindfulness or aerobics or zumba while looking at the Sleeping Giant,” Olian said. “If that doesn’t make you happier and healthier, I don’t know what will.”
Olian said the new building is an embodiment of a pillar in the university’s strategic plan to nurture the community while reinforcing the vision of Quinnipiac being “the university of the future.” The building also was designed for LEED gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to the university.
Ellett said the building is “run by students for students,” with a goal of hosting weekly programs for three to four nights a week on top of other activities that will take place daily
“I’m excited that students will gain confidence in themselves, their purpose for being at QU and abilities to go out into the world as active contributors and Bobcat alum,” Ellett said
Student Government Association President Owenea Roberts said she hoped her peers will take advantage of the new facilities — “myself included, because I currently do not exercise,” she said.
The $45-million building also is home to the university’s partnership with Hartford HealthCare. The university’s student health services merged with the health system last year in a $5 million deal. The agreement was to grow the Connecticut health care workforce by creating a career pipeline for students and expanding nursing and medical programs at Quinnipiac.
“Fantastic, fabulous, strategic and collaborative” were some adjectives the university president used to describe the partnership Friday. Jeff Flaks, president of Hartford HealthCare, said his team was “enriched by the culture” at Quinnipiac since the project started.
“What I really want to bring attention to today is the leadership of this university from the board to the president and to the entire team,” Flaks said. “It wasn’t just the innovation, the big thinking, but it was the personal advocacy of the health and well-being of the entire community.”
Through the partnership, the university already increased the size of nursing placement by 22 percent, according to Flaks, and is increasing placement for the medical school over time, too.
Leaders of the two institutions both said the partnership is “great for Connecticut” for “building the workforce of the future.”
Quinnipiac began construction of the Recreation and Wellness Center in 2021, and partially opened the building to students last fall.
The construction prompted Quinnipiac to try to move its tennis courts to a new location with both Hamden and North Haven campuses under its consideration. The relocation hasn’t been accomplished after two years, and the zoning applications were withdrawn after facing challenges with Hamden zoning ordinances and opposition from neighbors.