Campus Recreation is hosting a first year celebration of its East Campus recreation center. The event is 12:30 to 2 p.m. July 12 in the Rec and Wellness Center’s entry plaza. All students, faculty, staff and community members are welcome to attend.

“It’s been a great time for the Rec and Wellness Center. Everyone loves the atmosphere inside and the entire east campus community has been excited to show off the facility for us,” said Sherri Tompkins, assistant director for member services. “This small birthday celebration is really a huge thank you to students, our members, and the university community for their support during the transition from the old Activities Building to the new Rec and Wellness Center.”

The former Activities Building was constructed in 1926 and served as the campus’s community center for 50 years, until the opening of the East Union in the mid-1970s. Campus Recreation then managed the facility for the more than 30 years, installing the first modern fitness equipment in the early 1980s.

UNL students passed the “YES 2 Better Rec Centers” referendum in 2010, allocating additional student fees for improving fitness and recreation spaces on campus, including a new rec center on east campus. The Activities Building closed in October 2012 and fitness activities moved to the Fleming Fields Annex Building until the RWC’s opening July 13, 2015.

Stan Campbell, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and director of campus recreation, said the East Campsu recreation center complements the environment of the campus while hinting at the future.

“Incorporating the Activities Building’s original exterior walls and stately windows into the new modern additions on the south, east, and west, plus an entirely new interior, gives a fresh outlook to other upcoming (non-recreation) buildings on East Campus,” Campbell said.

The number of fitness and recreation users on East Campus has increased dramatically. In it’s final full semester (spring 2012), the Activities Building had 17,476 visits. By comparison, 78,039 visits were scanned at the Rec and Wellness Center in spring 2016, an increase of more than 60,000 in the same 130-day period.

For more information on the Rec and Wellness Center, click here.