THUNDER BAY - A new wellness facility at Confederation College will recognize the contribution of the student body, while also providing an important reminder to lead a good life.
On Monday, it was announced that the facility under construction at the college campus will be named the SUCCI Wellness Centre, Minowaadiziiwin.
Students at Confederation College are paying $8.5 million out of activity fees for the next 25 years to pay for the $13.4 million wellness centre. An additional $2 million was provided by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and Confederation College is funding the remaining $2.9 million.
“The importance to the students is they have somewhere to go for mental health and wellness to unwind or exercise, to be able to have that space,” said Jodi Connor, SUCCI president. “But also to have the contributing factor of the money that is involved and us as a student union putting that $8.5 million into the building.”
Connor said students played a significant role in deciding what the facility would be and the services it would provide through direct feedback to the student union.
“They felt inclusive and collaboratively working together,” Connor said.
Confederation College president, Jim Madder, said it was critical to construct a facility that supports the needs of all students.
“What we wanted to do is make sure we had a facility that would react to today’s students and future students,” he said.
The wellness centre will include a gymnasium, a running track, yoga rooms, and workout rooms. Madder said the Bubble, which opened in 1975, has done its fair share of serving the student body and something was needed to replace it.
“On a minus 20 or 30 day you might as well stand in front of it [The Bubble] and throw money away,” Madder said. “We need something that is far more energy efficient now than what we’ve had in the past.”
Madder added with the student population growing, particularly from areas outside of Northern Ontario, good accommodations are required to not only attract new students, but keep them at Confederation College.
“Our numbers of students who are coming to us from afar have gone up dramatically in the last couple of years,” he said. “If we can’t give them good accommodation and good places for wellness and just simple living, they are not going to come.”
The facility was named the SUCCI Wellness Centre, Minowaadiziiwin to honour the contribution from the student body. Minowaadiziiwin is an indigenous word meaning, lead a good life.
“Leading a good life is encompassing with a wellness centre,” Connor said. “Whether that is mental health or just students being active or just being somewhere they can unwind. That’s what it was about for our students.”
“It wasn’t just about physical health, it was also about medial health and I think they picked a wonderful name,” Madder added.
The SUCCI Wellness Centre, Minowaadiziiwin is slated to open in Sept. 2017 to coincide with Confederation College’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
