Since 2016, students have been able to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks in the Student Fitness Center. Unfortunately for the past few weeks, the location has been closed with no reopening date.
Currently, there are now signs in front of the venue that say “The Closure Is Temporary”. However, the University officials confirm that the location is permanently closed and it’s contract is set to expire at the end of April. Campus Recreation Administrations say they plan on re purposing the space to better fit student needs.
“The contract with the University was set to expire on April 30th of this year. So we’ve known that for a while now. That was the original contract they signed with us, so we’ve been having conversations for probably a couple of years now. Around if the space should remain something similar to a Starbucks, a Starbucks, or if we should repurpose the space into something that could serve our students better” Said by Campus Recreation Administration.
The closure of the Fitness Center Starbucks also allowed staff to be relocated, helping meet the high demand at the Bone Student Center location. In place of Starbucks, the space with be transitioned to support holistic wellbeing with a focus on mental health. Administrators hope the change will help bring new students to the Fitness Center.
“We will be offering a space where students can go back and meditate. They can go back and use zero gravity chairs, we’ll have red light therapy back there. So a really niche space that you see a lot of high end fitness clubs offering nowadays, that gets to the rejuvanation, gets to the recovery, and gets to the mental aspect of wellness.” Said by Campus Recreation Administration.
Construction is set to begin this summer, and the new space is expected to be open for students by the fall semester.