At a ground-breaking ceremony for the new Athletic and Recreation Pavilion held on Wednesday, Sept. 2, Dr. Don Taylor, president of the college, said, “The Pavilion represents Cabrini’s investment in projects that enhance the student experience and help them to live their best lives.”
The current fitness center on campus, known as the Dixon Center, will be expanded. The Pavilion will be two stories high, making way to accommodate the growing student population, all the faculty, staff and community members.
The Dixon Center is one of the most popular, frequentely used and crowded places on campus.
The project has been in the works for about two years now, according to Brad Koch, director of athletics and recreation. The proposal was finalized and approved by the college board of trustees.
“Since the Dixon Center was constructed, roster sizes have grown considerably,” Koch said. “We are currently unable to adequately provide locker room space, training and rehabilitation space and a fitness facility that can meet the demands of the 21st century college student.”
The Pavilion will consist of a new fitness facility, locker rooms for sports teams, studios for fitness and event space, weight and strength training spaces, equipment storage and a cafe equipped with a juice bar and a school spirit store.
When asked how she thinks the addition of the Pavilion will affect all students at Cabrini and not just student-athletes, Dr. Christine Lysionek, vice president for student life, believes all will profit.
“The new Pavilion has been purposefully designed to benefit all students at Cabrini,” Lysionek said. “This is absolutely something that students have told us that they want and also something that we believe they need.”
Depending on the time and day, if you walk upstairs to the fitness center hoping to just hop right on the treadmill without having to wait, you can be unfortunately mistaken.
At peak times during the day, it can get so crowded with students, sports teams and community members that one will have to come back for their workout at a later time.
“The size of the current fitness center is too small to accommodate the needs of the many students, faculty and staff who want to work out,” Lysionek said. “The size also places limitations on the variety of equipment that’s available.”
The new Pavilion will alleviate the current lack of space and availability.
As mentioned, all will benefit from the addition but the new Pavilion will also serve to enhance the student-athlete’s experience.
“It will improve the quality of the student-athlete experience by providing tools that will aid in conditioning, training, competition and rehabilitation. There are also several key features that will allow us to offer a varied slate of intramural, recreation, fitness and wellness programs,” Koch said. “This addition will fortify our ability to attract, enroll and retain new student-athletes.”
With this new Athletic and Recreation Pavilion, athletic teams will be able to host post-season tournaments on their home turf.
“The Pavilion will provide adequate facilities for Cabrini to host NCAA tournaments in numerous sports and ultimately strengthen our brand,” Koch said.
Junior exercise science major, Darianny Gutierrez, is excited for the new addition to campus.
“I feel that it will allow sports teams to practice more and school spirit will also improve,” Gutierrez said. “I am excited to see Cabrini grow.”
The facility expansion is projected to be finished by the fall of 2016.
“Health and wellness is a key component of a balanced life and we want to support our students ability to engage in activities that contribute to that balance,” Lysionek said.
