Getting up to speed on the Wellness Center

When arriving on campus for their first day of classes this fall, many students were surprised to see the Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center completely gated off. Signs outside the building informed gym goers that all fitness equipment had been moved to the North Dome. Andy Hutkowski, a junior at MSU, recalls, “I don’t even know when I heard about it,” adding, “it’s kind of a headache for people who are actually in school right now.” The transition seemed abrupt, and communication in advance of the move was limited. To gain a better understanding of MSU’s plans for the present and future of health and fitness on campus, theExponent reached out to Stephen Erickson, director of Recreational Sports and Fitness.

I met Erickson in his office, which is still inside the mostly-empty fitness center. Erickson was excited to show me the plans for the new fitness center and stressed that any lack of communication at the start of this semester was due to changing plans and quick turnaround times during the final weeks of summer. “We didn’t know until two weeks before school started whether or not we were moving to the domes right away,” he explained. He also made clear that his department is eager to help students make the most of the temporary fitness facilities while the new building is under construction. “If you need anything, tell us,” he said. “We want to make the domes as great as possible for the students.”

In the spring of 2019, the roofs of both the north and south gyms collapsed due to immense snowfall. Since then, the university has been planning a rebuild of the facilities. Last spring, students voted to pay additional fees to cover the cost of a new health, wellness and fitness center that will bring upgrades to every aspect of the old gym. Stephen showed me preliminary plans and renderings for the new facility, which will feature a brand new pool, multi-use athletic courts, rope climbing and bouldering walls, functional training areas, a dedicated yoga studio, counseling, meeting rooms and much more all in the same building. “We’re super excited. The end product is going to be the nicest university wellness center in the country. Most universities don’t have a full wellness center like we’re going to have,” Erickson said.

The opening date for the new fitness center is not confirmed yet, but Erickson says the project will take two years once it is underway. The timeline is surely a disappointment for upperclassmen, who will graduate before the wellness center is completed, but construction projects as ambitious as this one simply take time. As Erickson puts it, “Two years is a long time in the life of a student but in the life of a building and a university, two years is a blip.”

As the university begins construction, current and future students can look forward to a truly exceptional fitness and wellness facility. For updates and current information on the wellness center, visit https://www.montana.edu/wellness-center/.