CONWAY, Ark. (May 6, 2005) - Hendrix College broke ground today on a 100,000-square foot Wellness and Athletics Center that is expected to be complete by the end of 2006.
Total cost for the new center and for surrounding playing fields will be approximately $18 million. New fields for competitive and intramural sports will be built for sports including baseball, softball, track and field, soccer, tennis, lacrosse and field hockey.
Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd detailed the plans at a groundbreaking ceremony this morning (Friday, May 6) on the site of the future Wellness and Athletics Center, which is on the north corner of Harkrider and Siebenmorgen streets.
The center and the athletic fields will span the length of Siebenmorgen from Harkrider almost to I-40. Kirchner Architecture of Little Rock is project architect, and SportsPLAN Studio of Kansas City, Mo., is facility designer.
"The focus of all fitness and athletic programs at Hendrix, as well as other liberal arts colleges, is to cultivate the student as a whole person," said Cloyd. "This state-of-the-art center will offer students and the campus community more space and better facilities for their total development."
Cloyd said he is grateful to those who have already provided financial support for the Wellness and Athletics Center, including the Mabee Foundation which issued a $2 million challenge grant last November for the project.
Hendrix Board of Trustees Chair R. Madison Murphy said the center is an investment in the future for the college. "Hendrix has already claimed a national leadership position in higher education, and the new Wellness and Athletics Center marks a further commitment by the college to enhancing the value of academics and campus life for our students."
The center is among several new initiatives of the college designed to encourage active, engaged learning. Hendrix has kicked off a $70 million capital campaign to raise funding for the Wellness and Athletics Center, a new student center and increased endowment and scholarships for the new curricular program, Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning. Campaign gifts will help fund Odyssey projects such as studying abroad and artistic and creative pursuits.
The Wellness and Athletics Center will include a competition gymnasium for basketball and volleyball; a recreational gymnasium with two full courts for intramural programs; an aquatic center for competitive and recreational swimming and diving; a fitness center; an exercise studio; a kinesiology lab and classrooms; a rock-climbing wall; locker rooms, and staff offices.
Completion of the entire complex is expected by the end of 2006. The center will be built on the property currently occupied by the soccer field, which is being relocated east of the center off Siebenmorgen Street. Construction of the soccer field has begun and will be completed in time for this fall's soccer season.
The Wellness and Athletics Center, which will replace Grove Gymnasium built in 1961 when student enrollment was about half of what it is today, will be positioned facing the campus on the center line to Hendrix's main campus entrance on Harkrider Street. The property site for the center will need to be raised about six feet to align with the campus entrance.
The center will serve the needs of all students, faculty and staff and provide programs that will benefit the community. Hendrix, which is in NCAA Division III Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, currently has 17 men's and women's SCC athletic teams.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college thatemphasizes experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college, the recipient of the 2005 Arthur Vining Davis Foundations' Award for Excellence, has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. In April 2005, Hendrix was selected by the Princeton Review as the nation's #4 "best value" college in its "Top 10 Best Value Colleges" ranking list. For more information about Hendrix, visit www.hendrix.edu.
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Contact: Judy Williams, 501/450-1462, williamsj@hendrix.edu