Rec and Athletics - Part One

I seem to have hit on something when analyzing how universities support student wellbeing. In this case, it was about how varsity athletic programs who oversee recreation represent the department on their website. So, I am going to go down a little journey and share examples - good and not-so-good - from different universities. And to be clear, I don’t have any more context than what I see on these websites, and there is no finger pointing. But I do believe firmly that movement (exercise, sports, adventure, etc) is the best return for helping today’s students and I think it’s important that it gets recognized as such…

First Up (totally random choice) - Boston College

This is a pretty straight forward approach. One click under Athletics and you find Campus Recreation. But, it’s still listed under - on equal footing with 13 other services for Varsity Student Athletes. The Athletics Mission Statement: Provide our student-athletes with an exceptional experience fostering values, personal growth, and athletics excellence.

By the way, the Campus Recreation department has a great video about what they do in their incredibly beautiful building -- check it out!

Interesting tid bit -- literally the Campus Recreation website it still under the Banner of Boston College Athletics

The main website for the university does a really nice job of being inclusive for sports and recreation. I’d still like to see the recreation piece recognized in the Health and Wellness section, which it is not.

Overall, they do a nice job trying to show some balance between the varsity side and the rec side. The website is overall very nice and clean and they do a wonderful job consistently referring back to their Jesuit values.

School Two: University of New Mexico

I told you it was a random pick of schools. And that is playing out. It does not seem that Campus Rec reports up through athletics, so it was good to see it mentioned on their University Links page. Alas, it’s a dead link that went nowhere…

Here’s the page I got when I tried to go to the link. Actually it turns out their entire University of New Mexico website is down today September 6, 20205 at 4:51PM MST. So, all hope is not lost. Just lost for today.

School Three: Colgate

In the Patriot League, Colgate’s home page for Athletics has, what I am already seeing as a trend, PE and Recreation listed separately (nice!), but still not in the top banner.

The university’s section on Student Life seems to do a really nice job trying to balance Athletics and Recreation as you can see below. I’m only showing the top of the page, but lower down they have club sports and intramurals and outdoor. I’d rather see a direct link to the overall recreation department than the focus on the fitness programming (particularly with Colgate’s beautiful location and the nearby outdoors), but this feels like a pretty nice representation. It is nice and clean, easy to navigate and understand, and gets you where you need to go. I’d still advocate that PE and Recreation should be in the top header so that it appears just as important as Student-Athletes or individual sports. But it’s not bad.

That’s the first three I’m starting with. I’ve got a list growing of all the schools that have Recreation reporting up through Athletics. Over time I’ll try to get to them all (?). Let me know if you’ve got a school you’d like a quick review of or if you’ve got feedback. And remember, my intent is to try and elevate the importance of movement for college students, faculty, and staff. I just want people to be on the fields themselves and not always watching. I want to encourage universities and colleges to elevate movement as a solution to the belonging and loneliness, and mental and physical health issues, they are trying to solve.