Weber State University’s Ogden campus has undergone a bit of remodeling over the summer semester. WSU students will have more opportunities for activities and experiences on and off campus with the new Wildcat Center for Health, Education and Wellness opening in September, the Wildcat Village Residence Hall 3 increasing student housing, and the new Downtown Ogden Campus Store opening in October.
The Wildcat Center for Health, Education and Wellness is a 37,959-square-foot expansion comprised of the C. Williams Stromberg Complex, the Reed K. Swenson Building and a new arena expansion at the Stromberg Complex. The new facility will provide an array of activities for WSU students year-round.
Students and faculty who have exercised in the Stromberg Gym know how dreary it can be staring at a brick wall with no windows, under artificial light, waiting to be displaced when a class comes in to use the space. The arena expansion is a 4,000-square-foot fitness space dedicated to students for drop-in strength and cardio services. Students will have the luxury of working out to a view of the greater Ogden scenery on a variety of treadmills, recumbent bikes, upright bikes, elliptical trainers and octane lateral trainer machines new to WSU.
The changes to the facility also offer new formats for suspension training, which strengthens multiple planes of the human body.
“It’s going to be user-friendly,” said Teri Bladen, the director of WSU Campus Recreation. “We can take a novice and gradually progress them through a huge continuum of difficulty.”
The new center also has two new group exercise studios, which will enhance the opportunities for yoga, group cycling, muscle conditioning and boot camp. With all the new group exercise classes and time that the gym will be open for drop-in users, a multitude of job opportunities are now available for students. Students can check out Campus Recreation on the WSU website for job listings and to find out drop-in schedules to plan their fitness routines.
Residence Hall 3, the newest expansion of Wildcat Village, opened on Aug. 14. RH3 will provide a unique pod-style living experience for residents, different from the RH1 and Stewart Wasatch Hall, which feature suite-style setup. Daniel Kilcrease, the director of WSU Housing and Residence Life, described the pod setup as a more traditional living experience for residents, with a community bathroom and social quarters.
Kilcrease said RH3 will create more of a community feel, where students can eat, watch television and do homework together. The dining hall’s food-on-demand program, staffed by WSU’s Sodexo, provides a variety of healthy meals for students, and the courtyard provides an outdoor area with barbecue grills and tables where residents can play games and interact.
“Our students are genuinely pleased,” Kilcrease said.
RH3 will also introduce the new Civic Engaged Living Learning Community program for its residents, and by partnering with the Center for Community Engaged Learning, RH3 residents will also have a variety of service opportunities available.
WSU Campus Stores are also taking a big step with an off-campus store opening fall semester. The WSU Downtown Campus Store, to be located at 2314 Washington Blvd., will feature a bookstore, retail outlet, computer/Apple outlet and service station on the first floor, with the second floor dedicated to continuing education and housing classrooms, offices and a boardroom. The remainder of the facility will be an app development lab, which will give out scholarships to individuals to develop smartphone apps. The lab will run through the WSU foundation in partnership with Ogden City.
“We are really excited to be partnering with Ogden City,” said Mark Halverson, the director of Campus Planning and Construction. “We want to renovate and revitalize downtown Ogden.”
