The university’s South Campus Recreation Center has been honored by NIRSA, the nation’s leading college recreation association, with a 2021 Outstanding Facilities Award. Photo by Thomas Graning/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi‘s South Campus Recreation Center has been recognized as one of the most innovative new college recreation and wellness facilities in the country.
The Ole Miss recreation facility was recently recognized by NIRSA, the nation’s leading college recreation association, with the 2021 Outstanding Facilities Award. NIRSA gives these awards to only 10 facilities nationwide.
The South Campus Recreation Center, which opened in 2019, was converted from the old Whirlpool factory and connects one of Oxford’s largest clusters of off-campus student residences with the campus through exercise trails and footpaths.
Peter Tulchinsky, director of campus recreation, said he was excited to see such an important project that benefits students, faculty, staff and community members recognized externally with the award.
“I think it speaks to the university’s mission of transformation,” he said. “I don’t think there is a building on campus that better represents that than this facility. We took a warehouse that was a decrepit, old unused space and turned it into a bright, vibrant hub of well-being.”
The facility has functional training space, an indoor climbing wall, fitness space, three fitness studios, two basketball courts, a multiactivity court, a walking and jogging track, a classroom with a demonstration kitchen and a convenience store.
Brandon Bishop, the lead architect on the project, said he was excited to see the facility awarded, but he wasn’t surprised.
“It should be nationally recognized for the quality facility it is, so of course we’re very happy about it,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to take an old building that had some embodied energy in it and use that to restore it to being a big part of the community again.”
The recreation center also won the 2020 Honor Award from the Mississippi chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Providing Leadership Opportunities
The recreation center project was also helpful in recruiting graduate assistants who wanted the once-in-a-career experience of planning and opening a new large-scale facility.
The South Campus Recreation Center, in the old Whirlpool factory, features functional training space, an indoor climbing wall, fitness space, three fitness studios, two basketball courts, a multiactivity court, a walking and jogging track, a classroom with a demonstration kitchen and a convenience store. Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
LeAnne Davis, a graduate assistant from Lawrenceville, Georgia, who is pursuing her master’s degree in higher education, was awarded NIRSA’s William N. Wasson Student Leadership & Academic Award.
Davis said the award is special because attending a NIRSA conference helped her realize she wanted to work in recreation. The fact that her supervisors and peers nominated her for the award, though, was what meant the most.
“The last two years have been crucial in my personal and professional development, and I owe that to the department and the university,” she said.
Balancing the Department
Having one facility on either side of campus has helped increase convenience and balance demand from the campus community, Tulchinsky said.
“Some of the feedback we received from faculty and staff members was that Turner was too busy,” he said. “We rarely hear that feedback anymore. The SCRC has helped right-size Turner.”
The new facility, which features 25,000 square feet of fitness space, also has been helpful in enforcing social distancing while providing fitness opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic.