Student activity center model - wesley.edu

Student activity center model – wesley.edu

By Brandon Smith, The Whetstone

Many Wesley College students are looking forward to the coming Student Activities Center.

Athletes especially said they can’t wait to work out and practice in a new gym.

But the building still only lives in the imagination of Vice President of Institutional Advancement Chris Wood and his Capital Campaign fundraising team.

Wood’s fundraising team is still trying to find money from potential donors for the center. The team already has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since the summer of 2011 to help construct the Wesley plazas, and to rename the health and science building to Johnston Hall. Their third goal of the campaign is the student activities center.

“Raising the money to build the center is a huge process,” he said. “Our next step is to sit with architects to figure out what comes next and what the student body wants.”

Two students already have an idea of what they want.

Sophomores Kierra Dukes and Myles Garrison of the track team say they want locker-room showers, a bigger weight-room, and an indoor 200-meter track and pool.

“Trainers should relocate their offices inside the new gym, so athletes can have first dibs,” Dukes said.

But athletes need to take a breath, Wood said. “The student activities center will be for everyone, equally. It will be open for the student body.”

Students Tenaja Simpson, Murt Murray and Ellen Felton said they are more focused on the student activities section of the center.

“I think we should have food venders in the student hangout spot,” Felton said. “We should have Chick-fil-a, Chipotle, or McDonalds as an option,” Felton said.

Murray and Simpson are concerned more about the games and activities.

“Dance classes, Zumba classes, game tables, televisions and game systems should all be included in the activity center,” Murray said.

“I think we should have arcade games, a movie room, and snack concession stands,” Simpson said.

Wood is not sure what will be in the center but he has a few ideas.

“Maybe a fitness center, multi-purpose space, competition gym and a student hangout spot,” he said. “Until we have an idea of what’s exactly going in it, we do not know the cost of the center.”