Katlynn Mullins | The Crow’s Nest
Story and photo by Katlynn Mullins
With budget setbacks from last semester and a new Bull running around, Campus Recreation has faced some changes.
Fresh from graduate school, new fitness coordinator Hannah Anderson started in May.
Anderson likes the smaller size of the campus. She feels she “can connect with students” and build relationships with them while working closely with different staff members.
When Anderson planned the second annual Fitness Week, she focused largely on collaborating with campus organizations, said Assistant Director Casey Plastek.
On Sept. 17, she partnered with the Puppy Raisers club to put on puppy yoga. On Sept. 18, she partnered with Sodexo, the employees in The Reef responsible for cooking meals everyday, for a “Taste and Take” event. On Sept. 20, she partnered with The Campus Grind for coffee and cardio.
Altogether, the three events drew 172 students, and 119 on Wednesday alone. The “Taste and Take” event was hosted to inform students about healthy options they can find on campus.
One challenge Anderson has faced is the commuter culture.
“How do we get students to buy into all of the offerings that Campus Recreation has?” she asked. Even though they might not live on campus, she wants them to stay and feel more involved.
“I’m trying to figure out what students want,” she said.
One of her goals is to work more with the Wellness Center to create an exercise prescription program. The program would allow students time with personal trainers in Campus Recreation to build “self-efficacy.”
Often, Anderson said, a good coping mechanism for students who go to the counseling center is “simply exercise.”
“I was a competitive dancer for about 12 years before I went to undergrad… I struggled with some mental health and anxiety issues,” she said. “I found that keeping movement in my life was really crucial to my sanity.”
That’s when she started her group fitness journey. She began teaching as a freshman and hasn’t stopped. She’s into “holistic wellness” and works to combine all aspects of health — both mental and physical.
Anderson wants to pass that onto students.
“For me, it’s really important working on a campus… This is the first time so many students are living on their own, you don’t have your mom and dad telling you where to go, where to be, what to eat,” Anderson said. ”It’s a really influential time for students, so I want to have that impact.”
Multiple hits
RecFest is another annual event in the fall. The organization made similar collaborations, but with community partners. According to Plastek, the partners provided sponsorships to assist with food and prizes.
These “collaborations” have been an effort to lessen the impact “to the student body so we can be good stewards of Activities and Services funds,” said Plastek. They’ve been intentional with collaborations in hopes that their current allocation will be enough to “operate so the student experience doesn’t falter.”
Additionally, since April, Campus Recreation has lost two people: Fallon Hartig, former competitive sports coordinator, and Alan Capellin, former waterfront coordinator.
The organization hopes to find a new competitive sports coordinator by mid-November, said Director Al Gentilini. The waterfront coordinator position, however, is not listed on the organization’s website.
“We created an Assistant Director of Programs position” after Capellin’s position became vacant, Gentilini said.
Dan Marshall, outdoor recreation coordinator, now oversees the boathouse and waterfront operations” and the assistant director of programs will oversee Marshall and the new competitive sports coordinator.
