Roundtable to Discuss Student Life Center

03/22/2016 

Exactly what makes the year-old Student Life Center (SLC) a magnet for so many SUNY Cortland students will be discussed during a Community Roundtable on Thursday, April 7, at the College.

Julian Wright, director of recreational sports, who conceived the project two decades ago and then followed it through to fruition, will provide an overview of “Student Life Center Opportunity” from 8 to 9 a.m. in the in the Student Life Center, Room 1104. That is a change from the usual meeting location, the Park Center C-Club Hall of Fame Room.

Afterward, he will take community members who have not seen inside the unique, glass-walled complex on a tour of the facility.

Sponsored by the President’s Office, the roundtable is free and open to the public. Refreshments will precede the lecture at 7:45 a.m.

Since it opened to students, faculty and staff on Feb. 16 last year, the SLC has increased use to an average of 2,200 students per day, with up to 2,600 students some days, Wright said. This represents approximately one-third of the entire student body.

Wright, the man who spearheaded the project to construct a new focal point on campus for student recreation, social interaction and experiential learning, will answer questions after his presentation and before the tour.

During his talk, Wright will provide a brief history of the project; describe the purpose of the facility and its priority of use; will outline special programming opportunities for the College’s students, faculty and staff; discuss sustainability features of the facility; and share usage numbers for the facility and the impact it is having on the SUNY Cortland campus.

Student recreation space is located in the south wing, including two floors of fitness facilities, a three-court gymnasium, a recreational swimming pool, student lounge with video games and pool tables, a one-fifth-mile elevated running track and much more. Features in the north wing of the 150,000-square-foot complex include a 343-seat food court, Recreational Sports’ Outdoor Pursuits Center and a retail snack bar.

	Students can nurture their spirits as well as their bodies in the Student Life Center's Mind-Body Room, where new age music wafts around and a ceiling installation mimics the stars. In the photo above left, a pair of students runs the elevated track.

The College also committed to sustainability in designing and building the complex as it strives to achieve the New York state BuildSmart NY program goal, which requires all state-owned and managed buildings to reduce how much power they use 20 percent by 2020.

A succession of campus presidents and senior administrators were involved in bringing the project about. Out in the community, State Sen. James L. Seward, R-Oneonta, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, and former Cortland Mayor Martin “Marty” Mack M ’76, a senior staffer for the New York Attorney General’s Office, were all instrumental in lining up the funding for the $56 million construction project.

For more information, contact Samantha Howell, special events coordinator for the President’s Office, at 607-753-5453.