URI will soon have an outdoor recreational center to accompany the Fascitelli Recreation Center. Photo from high-profile.com.
At their March 31 meeting, the University of Rhode Island’s Student Senate passed a bill that will grant $25,000 from its budget to partially fund an outdoor wellness and recreation center for Campus Recreation.
The idea of adding an outdoor wellness center for meditation has been on Senate’s floor for some time. The Director of the Office of Small Projects Jenny Baccari said that the original plan was going to start last year, but the pandemic led to a loss of funding and put the project on hold. This bill’s passage last month has allowed the project to start again.
Former Student Senate President Austyn Ramsay was heavily involved with the bill’s passing. She believes that an outdoor wellness center will be beneficial for students, especially after this academic year.
“I think the wellness center will be a great addition to the URI campus,” Ramsay said. “It will be a place where students, faculty and guests can gather outdoors to eat, study and relax.”
Ramsay explained that the Senate still had money left over due to the lack of projects that have been done this year. She wanted to use this money to do something nice for the students who made it through this year.
They originally considered constructing some sort of statue, but after talking to Campus Recreation and the Office of Student Involvement, they decided on funding this project as the plans for it had already been initiated.
While the funding has just been passed, Baccari said that the plans for the center, including its budget and confines, are not yet fully determined.
Since the Senate just passed this bill, they will have to rework the funding from the old plans to reflect the Senate’s funding, as well as funding from other sources outside of the Senate. Baccari hopes to finalize this information by the end of the week. At the meeting where the bill was passed, Senator Randy Urena said that Student Senate’s donation will cover half of the construction costs.
The project will be affiliated with the Anna Fascitelli Fitness and Wellness Center to help give students space outside where they can enjoy the campus and relax.
While Baccari said that it is premature to discuss the specific plans of the project, Ramsay was able to offer some information on what could be constructed.
This space could include an outdoor pavilion with tables and chairs and will include an area for meditation. While the location for this has not been confirmed yet, Ramsay noted that there is free space near the top of campus that they will consider.
Ramsay said that this is the perfect tribute to the difficult year since the Senate did not have many opportunities to hold outdoor activities for the students.
“What’s more perfect than a year in COVID where if you had to gather, it had to be outside,” she said. “It will be a perfect way to give back for generations of URI students to come, where they can enjoy an outdoor space together.”