Luke Brantley photo Students will get free admission to the new recreation center, which will include a café, a basketball court, cardio equipment, weights, a track and an outdoor swimming pool.Luke Brantley Troy University will get a new recreation center this fall, featuring a pool, a track and healthy eating options. According to Shane Tatum, the university’s director of health and wellness, the new Trojan Fitness and Wellness Center will have three floors. Students can use the facility for free with their student IDs. The new building is at the southwest corner of University Avenue and Georg e Wallace Drive. The first floor will feature a café. That floor also will include a basketball court, a multipurpose court and a free-weight area. The second floor will have a spin room with exercise bikes and other equipment for cardio exercise. The third floor will be dedicated to a track for walking and running. The track will be inclined, which means that the curves will be angled down toward the inside, similar to a racetrack. The track will also be wheelchair-accessible. The 80,000-square-foot building was designed with an open floor plan, meaning people can look from the third floor all the way down to the first The Fitness and Wellness Center also will have an outdoor swimming pool. Tatum said that the new building was inspired by the growing trend of colleges building one main recreational facility on campus. For new and returning students, the facility will offer more opportunities to stay active and have fun than what is available on campus now. Morgan Long listed some of his hopes for the new facility. He is a sport management major from Birmingham who was a junior in the spring and the Student Government Association’s acting vice president of campus activities. His main wishes are for longer hours on holidays, weekdays and weekends. He also said he is looking forward to more space and newer equipment. According to Tatum, the new recreation facility will offer non-academic programs like exercise classes, aerobics and yoga. But, according to John Garner, the chair of the department of kinesiology and health promotion, there were no plans to offer academic classes there as of the spring. “The policy is that it’s not an academic building,” Garner said. “It’s just for recreation, but we’d be happy to help in any way possible.” Tatum also said that the hours for the new facility will be similar to the previous recreation facility’s hours, and it will be open seven days a week. The previous recreation center was open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Long offered advice for incoming students. “Take advantage of the new facility, and stay ahead of the ‘freshman 15,’ ” Long said, using a popular expression about students gaining 15 pounds their first year. “That goes along well with Troy’s motto: ‘Educate the mind to think, the heart to feel and the body to act.’ ”
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