Construction of the recreation, fitness and wellness center will continue through Saturday, March 9th.
Construction projects are underway at the Recreation, Fitness and Wellness Center and the Health Professions Center.
The RFWC construction project is part of a $17 million renovation project announced in August 2022 that includes a health professions center. The construction will integrate Counseling and Psychological Services, Public Safety, Religious Life, University Strategic Communications, and the University Health Center into the RFWC.
Jim Wolf, Director of Facilities Operations and Planning, oversees construction and renovation projects at RFWC. Wolf said the construction project is expected to be completed by late July.
He said the project began before the coronavirus pandemic and has been moving slowly since then.
“The late arrival of materials caused a three-month delay in completing the steel from the beginning of the project,” says Wolf.
Wolf said RFWC’s main floor will include a front desk and a lounge with seating and monitors. The public safety area will include a front desk, offices, storage rooms, locker rooms, shower rooms, and a large meeting room for training.
The third floor will be the University Health Center.
There are about 8 examination rooms. It was bigger than what they had and even bigger.
“We hope to start moving the furniture in mid-May, and then probably start moving the health center in early June,” Wolf said.
University Strategic Communications and CAPS are also located on the third floor of RFWC.
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It’s great to see key resources like CAPS and health services working together. ”
— Jenah Hottel, senior studio art major
At the Health Specialty Center, Wolf said the USI Dental Clinic has completed renovations and is in use, while others are still under construction.
Renovation work will begin in summer 2023 on the area currently housing the University Health Center within the Center for Health Professions. The renovations are aimed at expanding the dental program’s capacity and upgrading its equipment. He was allocated $5 million to purchase new equipment, including an expansion of 18 dental chairs.
Wolf said all of the equipment at USI Dental Clinic is new and very advanced. He said renovation work on the USI Dental Clinic will begin in May 2023.
“We wanted to get the dental area finished for use in the fall, so we needed to get it done fast, but we couldn’t get started until May,” Wolf said.
Wolf said he hopes demolition will begin in summer 2023 and be completed by summer 2024.
Renovations include classroom space and new equipment.
“We actually have a lot of equipment, like CT scanners, digital radiology, MRI simulations, but we only had one x-ray machine and two portable machines on the second floor,” Wolf said. . “Currently, he actually has six laboratories, all equipped with the latest equipment.”
Nursing, food and nutrition classes will be opened on the lower floor of the Health Care Center.
The nursing department will have a clinical simulation center with four simulation rooms, similar to hospital rooms, with patient beds and mannequins.
“They have a computer that controls the movement of this mannequin. It’s electronic,” Wolf said. “You can actually get measurements that might tell you something is wrong.”
He said it will be larger, adding more classrooms than before and increasing the number of nursing students by 50%.
“We used to have 120 nursing students per class, and now we’ll have 180,” Wolf said.
Wolf said there will also be an anatomy lab for nursing students.
“We put an anatomy lab here because all the nurses have to take anatomy,” Wolf said. “And as we added 60 more students to each class, we needed more space to teach anatomy.”
Food and Nutrition will also have a classroom area and a station area for students.
“The station is like a bar, with all the utensils you can use to make a stove, microwave, dishwasher, food mixer, and maybe six utensils for each person to learn how to cook.” said Wolf. .
He said this is a major upgrade in food and nutrition from the previous one.
Jenna Hottel, a senior studio art major, said the relocation of the University Health Center, CAPS and Public Safety will make it easier for students to find these resources in one building.
“It’s great to see key resources like CAPS and health services working together,” Hottel said. “This makes a lot of sense and makes it easier to find all the resources for healthy living.”
Ryan VanBuskirk, a senior political science and German double major, said it’s “crazy” that the renovation project has continued since USI launched in 2020.
“I like the move,” VanBuskirk said. “Right now, I think the public safety locations are very confusing and poorly located, so it’s good to have them in a more centralized and easily accessible location.”
