WREC Year End Report

WILDCAT RECREATION CENTER
ANNUAL REPORT 2016–2017
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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01 OVERVIEW
02 MISSION & VALUES
03 FULL TIME STAFF
09 ADVENTURE OUTINGS
15 STUDENT EMPLOYEES
18 COMMITTEES
23 RECREATIONAL SPORTS
27 FACILITIES
34 WREC USERSHIP
39 WREC PROGRAMS
44 DIRECTOR ASSESSMENT
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OVERVIEW
The WREC is completing its eighth year at the end of Summer 2017.
There is much to be proud of and yet much still to accomplish.
The WREC’s strengths continue to be it accessibility, breadth of
programs, and its culture. Long hours, a welcoming atmosphere,
and a clean facility drive the WREC’s accessibility. From Adventure
Outings and aquatics to personal training and open recreation, the
WREC has something for everyone. WREC culture is the foundation
that makes all of the department’s successes possible. Credit for this
goes to the founding Directors, Rick and Kimberly Scott.
A collaborative leadership approach at the WREC combined with
phenomenal student and career staff, create a fun and forward leaning
environment. It is this culture and environment that ultimately
allow for consistent positive student experiences.
The purpose of this document is to provide a WREC review for the
2016-2017 year. As the WREC strives to make more data driven decisions,
this past year’s successes, challenges and opportunities will
be delivered as much as possible via metrics. However, anecdotal
evidence will also be provided.
This combination of information types is worthy of note. The WREC
is in the business of student success. Whether it is recruitment, retention,
or student development, the WREC’s modality for student
success is play, wellness, and adventure. Determining how successful
the WREC has been this past year in increasing student success
requires both measurements.
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01

MISSION & VALUES
FULL-TIME STAFFING
02
Last summer the WREC staff had a full-day retreat to begin the process
of defining the WREC mission and values. Since the WREC’s
opening, when staff was so busy getting the building ready for use,
the WREC had been working with a mission statement that was
hastily crafted/stolen. With that in mind, and having been open for
seven years, the WREC was overdue to really do some self-examination
and create its own.
Staff spent the day examining missions and values from numerous
other campus recreation departments and also many from wellknown
businesses. Much debate and word dissection continued into
the fall. Consideration was also given the AS overall strategic values.
The WREC felt comfortable adding to and duplicating those overarching
values when defining its own. The WREC’s new mission and
values will be the cornerstone of this August’s All-Staff Training.
The physical health benefits of exercise are well known. What is also
now known are the positive effects on exercise on brain function.
Exercise optimizes mind-set, prepares nerve cells to bind together for
accepting new information and spurs development new nerve cells
in the hippocampus. In short, exercise improves learning.
It is with this backdrop, and the Associated Students emphasis on
student success, that the WREC’s new Mission Statement came to be:
“Moving the campus community through play, wellness,
and adventure.”
The values, in addition to those of the Associated Students, that the
WREC strives to emulate while engaged in its mission include:
SUSTAINABILITY
INCLUSION
EXCELLENCE
STUDENT DEVELOPMENT
FUN
LEADERSHIP
The WREC arguably saw as much or more turnover in recent history
than in any previous year. In a little over a year, seven WREC fulltime
staff left employment with the Associated Students. In this time,
there was one retirement, one termination, and five employees that
went on to different opportunities. Obviously, with turnover comes
challenges but there have also been some opportunities.
Challenges include the obvious: recruitment, training, scheduling
adjustments, labor adjustments, etc. Unfortunately, this has become
common place for custodial. Six of the seven departures have been
from WREC custodial. One of those six was a termination. So, five
custodians left voluntarily and three of them (60%)
accepted the same position with campus. With
one similar occurrence in the BMU, it is time
a concerted effort be made to change this
trend. Obviously, custodial is a high turnover
position in general but the Associated
Students must at least start to acknowledge
the stress it puts on the organization by defining
what is an acceptable turnover rate and
taking necessary action to curb the associated
costs.
60%
of departing
WREC custodians
took the same
position on
campus
Fortunately, there are several positives that have come along
with this recent turnover as well. First, in six of the seven departures,
the employees were running to an opportunity and not
running away from a supervisor or culture. WREC culture remains
strong and is a coveted place to work.
Second, the WREC is trying to own its part of this custodial turnover.
We are currently examining changes to the approach to hiring and
scheduling custodial employees. Previously, during the recruitment
and interview process, not much care was given to custodial experience
because the skills required are teachable. Instead, much
50%
of departing
BMU custodians
took the same
position on
campus
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attention was applied to identifying a candidate’s ability to work
with students, providing leadership, grasping the role of the Associated
Students, etc. Using this approach, we were able to hire good
people that were trainable but they also often tended to be people
with loftier aspirations and would often move on from the Associated
Students quickly. While we will still look for good people moving forward,
more attention will be paid to those with custodial experience.
This will insure that new custodians will be familiar with physical nature
and pace of the work. Furthermore, seasoned custodians may
be more content with the hours and nature of the work and therefore
maintain employment longer.
Third, the WREC is also giving serious consideration to changing it
scheduling practices regarding custodians. Being open seven days
a week and numerous hours per day creates several different custodial
shifts each with its own challenges and opportunities. To date,
a custodian is hired into a particular shift and only changes shifts
through attrition. Moving forward, consideration is being given to rotating
custodians through the shifts every month or couple of months.
This would insure each custodian gets to experience the nuances of
each shift, gets to work with all custodial staff and supervisors, and
has access to equal shift differential pay. The thought is this rotation
would create a more cohesive and effective custodial unit.
The WREC was able to hire an Aquatics Coordinator for the first time
in its history. Having such a position is industry standard for campus
recreation centers that have an aquatics facility. The absence of this
position at the WREC created a lack of expertise in lifeguarding,
aquatic programming, and safety classes. Furthermore, it indirectly
created a void of real representation for the student lifeguard employees.
Creating the Aquatic Coordinator position and hiring someone
with passion and expertise has already made a huge difference
which will be highlighted more in the Aquatics section.
The WREC funded the Aquatics Coordinator role by eliminating one
of two maintenance positions. This was a calculated risk based on
many factors such as age of the building, reliable third-party vendors
for aquatic pump room infrastructure, turnstiles, etc., and not
the least of which was who remained employed at the WREC in the
role of Maintenance Specialist. That risk recently increased when
Bob Brittingham announced his retirement for this September. With
the number of fitness machines and pool/spa combination, both of
which are 24/7/365 living things, it was clear keeping the WREC
properly maintained was going to be a challenge for one person
but if anyone could do it, it would be Bob. With Bob now retiring,
only time will tell if his replacement will be up to the challenge. It is
easy to see a time when the WREC will need to revisit the idea of
two full-time staff in maintenance. The WREC is excited to have the
opportunity overlap Bob and his replacement for two months.
With an eye to future WREC staffing issues, one glaring weakness
of the WREC is the lack of a Strength Coordinator. It is very common
in campus recreation to have an Assistant Director of Fitness/Wellness
with multiple coordinators underneath directly responsible for
different areas such as wellness, group exercise, personal trainers,
strength, etc.
THE WREC IN COMPARISON:
CAL
POLY
SLO
CAL
POLY
POMONA
CSU
NORTHRIDGE
SAC
STATE
SF
STATE
CSU
CHICO
ADMINISTRATIVE
ASSISTANT
WORKING
DIRECTOR
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While the WREC has many knowledgeable people, no singular person
has a specific background in this area. The Programs Coordinator
comes close, but her background in more centered in Group
Exercise and programming. This fact leads to labor intense efforts
to make decisions on equipment purchasing and layout, adoption of
industry trends, rules around equipment use and safety, etc. Due to
the large number of students served by the WREC’s large strength
facility and the way this open recreation program overlaps departments,
decisions typically involve the Director, Assistant Director for
Membership, Assistant Director for Programs, Programs Coordinator,
Maintenance Specialist and Operations Supervisor.
This year permission was granted for the WREC to move Facilities responsibilities
to another WREC employee thus providing the WREC
Director more time to focus on larger issues such as student development,
campus wellness, telling the WREC’s story within Student
Affairs, etc. Further permission was granted to the WREC to employ
a part-time administrative assistant that would be shared with the
BMU. Both opportunities were ultimately declined.
It is worthy of note that the BMU, a building of similar size and
complexity, has both its own Facility Manager and Administrative
Assistant (catch all). The Associated Students is paying the WREC
non-custodial professional staff too much to perform many of the
repetitive administrative tasks they are doing. Furthermore, all six
of the most comparable CSU Campus Recreation Directors are not
working Directors, meaning that their main function is to provide
strategic leadership to the entire department and not directly oversee
Adventure Outings (AO) strengths continue to be connecting peoany
programmatic or service based function.
Some final thoughts on staffing for the WREC. The WREC has always
had a default response of “Yes” to any campus or internal request
for partnership or programs. The WREC prides itself on being
innovative as well as the place that campus looks to make things
happen and to do them well. However, WREC professional staff has
been working at maximum capacity for some time now. To insure
continued excellence with regards to its core programs, not burn out
employees, and be sensitive to our growing population of hourly
staff, the WREC is being much more intentional about its priorities.
The WREC is being selective when it comes to new programs and
partnerships by placing emphasis on those activities that are directly
within our mission and values while also aligning with campus goals
surrounding student success. In essence, the WREC is strategically
saying “No” more.
The WREC declined the offer of internal transfer of Facilities related
duties due to improper fit with current personnel and job loads. The
WREC prefers to wait until such time that a full-time facilities person
can be hired. This non-move, unfortunately, continues more of a dayto-day
working role for the Director where less emphasis can be
placed broader thinking, strategic planning, etc. The WREC also declined
the half time administrative assistant opportunity. While great
in theory, the WREC is convinced from previous centralization attempts,
that the WREC’s relationship with an administrative assistant
that resides exclusively in the BMU will functionally and logistically
create as much work as it decreases. Similarly, the WREC prefers to
wait until such time that a full-time assistant can be hired.
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"As
a participant, I
couldn't have felt more
included and welcome. This
trip will be a highlight of my
college experience at Chico...This
trip was an excellent value and
was the best use of my Spring
Break ever...The skills and memories
will last with me even after
my time at Chico is done. I
would 100% recommend this
trip to everyone"
(GUIDE SCHOOL 3/17)
"It was
one of the best
trips I've been on... I
had a blast and would
do it all over again!"
(GUIDE SCHOOL 3/17)
ADVENTURE OUTINGS
ple with others and campus, bridging the gap between education
and the outdoors, providing meaningful, professional student-led adventures,
and developing strong, competent leaders. AO is able to
do this across many mediums including its trips program, Wildcat
Wilderness Orientation, special events, equipment rental program,
climbing gym facilitation and Bike Cart program.
During the 2016-2017 year, AO successfully lead 66 out of 72
scheduled trips. Of the six canceled trips 3 were due to weather
related factors, two were due to low enrollment numbers and the
customer, Alumni Association, canceled the final trip. The success of
these trips is shown in the attached infographic in terms of customer
ratings and quotes.
Despite this success, AO is working to improve some of its user demographic
numbers to be more representative of campus percentages.
White female students are the dominant user group for AO. In an
effort to promote its programs and increase male and non-white AO
user rates, AO does an amazing job marketing across all platforms
including but not limited to social media, blogs, trip calendars, videos,
etc. (Please click on links below to see some of AO’s marketing
videos).
https://vimeo.com/144062080
https://vimeo.com/107295310
https://vimeo.com/211536520
https://vimeo.com/155447130
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"This trip taught
me so much not only about
hiking and climbing but also
about myself and the other
people in the group."
(PINNACLES 3/17)
Additional efforts to broaden AO usership include trip scholarships.
While AO trips are already partially subsidized, it is important that
financial barriers to participation are addressed for those students
in financial need. With 42% of Chico State students identifying as
low income, cost can be an obvious barrier. Students are able to
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apply for AO trip scholarships through the Get Outdoors Fund. This
fund is supported by the proceeds of the biannual Bile Cart Auction
proceeds along with raffle and donor funds associated with the
annual AO Banff Mountain Film Festival. This year 40 scholarships
were awarded totally $3,800. With more money going into the Get
Outdoors Fund, this was the most ever awarded and that trend is
expected to continue.
Wildcat Wilderness Orientation (WWO) is AO’s summer program
that targets incoming freshmen with the goals of connecting students
to each other, connecting to the campus, and providing students with
tips to lead a successful balanced college lifestyle. While WWO is
in its infancy, it is the metamorphosis of a prior AO program called
Chico Bound. Chico Bound took a few years hiatus during the economy
downturn when AO was operating with only two full-time staff.
Nevertheless, both programs are founded in proven outdoor curriculum.
In its second year, WWO is providing six expedition style trips
this summer and serving 40 incoming students. This is in comparison
to 29 students last year.
This program’s growth along with customer feedback are two ways
of defining the program’s success. Another determining factor of
WWO’s success, cohort Persistence Rate, is directly in line with campus
and CSU graduation goals. While in the early stages of this
data collection, the 2015 WWO Cohort Persistence Rate well above
that of the campus average of 80.5%.
There were six trip incidents this year compared to nine last year.
Two of the incidents qualified as near misses. Near misses are when
an incident or accident occurs and major injury or financial loss was
preventable and only narrowly/luckily avoided. Near misses obviously
result in changes dealing procedural, training, equipment issues,
etc. One near miss this year was related to an improperly connected
trailer. Another was related to a rafting trip having a much
higher river flow than normal flows due to record winter weather. A
third, non-trip, near miss involved an unlocked storage container that
contained several thousand dollars of equipment.
The Climbing Gym is a unique program. While clearly run by AO
from an expertise standpoint, its location versus other AO programs
and the fact that there is starting to be student crossover employment
with the WREC, make the Climbing Gym more of a bridge program
between the WREC and AO. The Climbing Gym remains a premiere
WREC attraction and serves students at a high rate. It is the only
part of the facility that is open less than normal operating hours. This
two facts combined warrant consideration for longer Climbing Gym
hours.
AO’s yurt continues to be a popular program having 40 rentals
during 2016/17. Despite this success, the yurt did require some maintenance
attention this year. The yurt stove was becoming old. It did
not produce enough heat and there was some question as to its
safety regarding installation. AO purchased a new stove and had it
professionally installed in early fall semester.
This year’s harsh winter and many storms resulted in the yurt’s dome
coming off in a particularly high wind event late in the season. AO
was able to purchase and successfully install a new dome in late
spring. The recent improvements can be seen in this new video.
https://vimeo.com/226811340
During this year, AO hosted eight special events and workshops.
Special events include, technical trainings, shows, demonstrations,
etc. This list includes but is not limited the Banff Mountain Film Festival,
WREC Pool Kayak sessions, Wilderness First Responder Training,
Outdoor Nation Challenge (promo video link below) and more.
One new program added this year was the Back Country Film Festival
hosted in the Bell Memorial Union. Admission was free and
films centered around winter adventure. The continued success of
the Banff Mountain Film Festival led AO to expand the event to two
nights this year. The program expansion was considered a huge
success. It almost sold out on Thursday and completely sold out on
Friday. Ticket sales went from 1,100 and $7,000 in 2016 to 1,705
and almost $10,000 in 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDUyEKvnhyY
The Bike Cart continues to offer very affordable on campus bike repair
for Chico State students. However, over recent years there has
been a decline in larger repairs and thus a decline in repair income.
There are contributing factors to this change including incoming students
being told about the small campus footprint and high theft rate
so many students are choosing not to bring their bikes to campus
and insufficient marketing efforts.
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Despite this income downturn, the number of students served remains
high with the focus being flat tire repair. Similarly, each semester’s
bike auction continues to thrive. University Police are providing all
the bikes the Bike Cart can handle and more. The Bike Cart easily
makes its target of 50 bike per auction and is looking for additional
avenues to sell the remainder. Bikes at the auction average a sale
price of $90-$100 not including the mandatory $10 licensing fee.
With the auction bikes being provided as unclaimed University Police
property, the sustainable nature of the program is impressive.
With the proceeds of the auction benefiting students in the form of
AO scholarships, it is important to make as much money as possible
from these sales. However, it is concerning that some financially
challenged students may be out-priced. With UPD being required to
spend bike licensing fees on bike related education and programming,
it may be worth encouraging them to fund some bike auction
“scholarships.” Please see how the Bike Cart gets its inventory from
UPD in the link below.
https://vimeo.com/89408360
To continue to provide optimal service and bikes for students, moving
forward, the Bike Cart will need to address the following challenges.
The rising minimum wage will necessitate increased customer costs.
Develop systematic and quality marketing similar to that of AO. The
Bike Cart itself will likely need replacement in 1-3 years. Supervision
of a program that is loosely connected to AO and the WREC and
located elsewhere. It may also be worth considering a new administrative
home for the Bike Cart. The nature of what the Bike Cart does
along with its location and massive recycling of tubes and bicycle
parts make both Sustainability and Recycling likely candidates.
Clearly AO is robust and an industry leading campus outdoor recreation
program. It has led the way on many issues including most
recently law changes impacting overnight pay. Moving forward AO
is positioning itself to address additional issues like minimum wage
increases and employees moving from exempt to hourly. A current
area of concern is weekend availability in the case of an emergency.
While AO does not have an on-call policy for full-time staff, it
could be argued that the current state affairs can be construed as
such. Expertise from Human Resources and examination of the hourly
status are warranted to address.
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By its very nature, AO is a program that operates overnight and on
weekends. Thus, these issues will begin to impact student affordability.
Furthermore, outdoor pursuit programs like AO have been proven
most impactful to student success when involved with longer trips
which make deeper campus connections and develop more meaningful
relationships. Another natural consequence of these issues is
AO being financially forced to offer shorter trips.
With the CSU 2025 Graduation Initiative as backdrop, Chancellor
White stated at the January AOA Conference that student connectedness
is the number one factor influencing student success (retention,
perseverance, excellence). Wage increases and non-exempt
employee statuses, are and will continue to increase price points
and reduce trip durations.
All this said, there is a tipping point on the horizon when the AS
will have to determine if AO is going to continue to be all that it has
been in terms of contributing to student success or will it be relegated
to a short trip excursion retailer to those students that can afford
it. As AO continues to demonstrate its student impact both metrically
and via student stories, it is time to examine the financial viability
of overtime versus exempt status as well as what are realistic future
price points for trips.
Lost in all of this is one of AO’s strategic “No” answers. This year AO
surveyed campus about departmental interest in AO led team building
trips and activities. The response was overwhelmingly favorable.
Supporting data can be seen here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kt0U1u3Vyb_6YwHwnfzWx_58eMAmcjFeTcE7pBLh1uY/edit?usp=sharing
This type of program is 100% in AO’s wheelhouse and would serve
not only as a good opportunity for student employees but also a
decent income generator. However, due to the non-exempt status of
two thirds of its employees and the additional workload that would
be created, AO has had to sideline this program for the time being.
WREC STUDENT EMPLOYEES
At the time this document was
starting to be created in June,
the WREC had 160 total student
employees. This total includes
a few groups of students
that do most of their work outside
of the WREC such as AO
trip leaders, Bike Cart, Zen Den,
etc. Additionally, care was taken
to count students only once that hold
two positions for the WREC. Lastly, these
numbers do not include student employees of
Recreational Sports.
During fall semester, the WREC started its own
on-boarding program. Every employee, full or
part-time, spends an hour with the Director and
Assistant Director of Membership. The major emphasis is to create
a foundation for each new employee by building expectations and
understanding the WREC’s history, purpose and relationship to the
AS and campus. Obviously, the WREC’s new mission and values are
reviewed. Topics also include items central to all AS employees such
as Workers Comp, Negligence, Emergency Action Plans, etc. As AS
Human Resources begins take over new hire paperwork for students,
there is an opportunity to coordinate relevant messages so students
hear them repeatedly and consistently. Below is video link that we
use to kick off each monthly WREC on-boarding meeting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDy49_OmlXY
Each fall the WREC hosts an all staff training one day during the
week prior to the start of classes. The WREC is closed until noon and
the morning is spent reviewing global issues with the entire group
and then breaking off into work areas for more specialized training.
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While all full-time staff participate, this WREC training is put on by
the WREC Staff Development Committee. Coming off the Summer
Olympics last summer, the staff training in August 2016
was Olympic themed. Country teams were formed
across work areas and teams went through twelve
events learning and competing in customer
service, emergency action response, inclusivity,
awareness, etc. With the introduction of
the WREC’s new mission and values, this
fall’s all-staff training will be focused on
having each work area define what each
WREC value looks like in their area. For
example, what does inclusion look like for
the lifeguards at the pool? How can front
desk staff incorporate sustainability into the
work that they do? At the end, the intent is to
have area specific, self-generated, tangible tools
implemented at each work place.
Finally, be reviewing the adjoining infographic, it is easy to see that WREC
employees closely resemble the campus demographic make-up. With such
a large number of student workers employed at the WREC, it is important
that the WREC employees be a mirror of the campus student body. Also,
worthy of note in the data, is that the WREC student employee GPA and
Persistence rates are noticeably higher than the campus averages. While a
direct correlation cannot be drawn between WREC employment and grades
or staying in school, clearly this data demonstrates that being employed at
the WREC is having a positive impact on student success.
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COMMITTEES
A couple of years ago the WREC developed several subcommittees
to address issues central to all areas of the WREC. The obvious goal
was to take advantage of certain skills sets and share the workload
associated with advancing these issues. Committees included
Technology, Risk Management, and Staff Development. Recreational
Sports staff members are also on these committees.
During the 2016 summer the WREC added an Assessment Committee.
This addition came into being after a massive Spring 2016
WREC Customer Survey. An incentive based online survey that netted
over 5,000 responses covering issues ranging from fitness equipment
preference to gym use impact on students’ time management.
(See related data in the Open Recreation section of this document).
Since that survey, the Assessment Committee has been involved
with helping Recreational Sports complete their portion of the CAS
(Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education)
for Student Affairs. The committee has also outlined its assessment
schedule, both micro and macro, on a three-year rotational basis.
Related to assessment, in June 2016, an anonymous survey was
given to staff to evaluate the WREC Director on 18 different traits.
Copies of those surveys are available at the end of this document.
Since our third-party risk management audit in the summer of 2015,
the WREC Risk Management Committee has been extremely productive.
Its members have created risk grids for every WREC and
Rec Sports program and new risk grids are required for all new
activities. Risk grids evaluate severity and likelihood of risk of activities
before and after implementation of mitigating measures. If an
activity cannot be safely mitigated it cannot happen.
The Risk Management Committee also annually thoroughly evaluates
one in-house program. This evaluation includes everything from
industry standards, organizational affiliations, documentation, onsite
reviews, etc. Due to the ever-growing nature of Sport Clubs and
increased requirement in the area of concussion protocol, game
management and athletic training, this was the program that was
reviewed in 2016-17.
With the language around who is authorized to administer an Epipen
injection so unclear, many Epipen certifications are no longer
being recognized. Certainly, this topic is a major concern to AO,
and even the WREC as a whole, so the Risk Management Committee
tackled this issue this year. In short, the committee wrote its own
course curriculum and had it certified by the California Emergency
Medical Services Authority. The WREC is now one of only seven certified
approved training programs in the state. The curriculum is now
one of the classes available to students through the WREC safety
class schedule and has already trained 30+ AO staff and Adventure
Day Camp Counselors.
The Risk Management Committee’s analysis of the WREC Incidents
and Accidents for 2016/17 showed a significant increase this year
in both categories. However, the types of injuries, the locations they
occurred and time of day remained fairly constant. This suggests
much of the increase is due to better and more consistent reporting
as was a goal of the committee. 2016/17 data is much more in line
with similar data from 2011 through spring 2015.
The data shows that close to half of the injuries occur in Open Recreation
and on the basketball courts. Obviously, the vast majority of
these are ankle sprains. The next highest total for type and locations
of injuries are lacerations and the MAC court. Elbows and heads
often come together in both basketball and indoor soccer creating
this data spike.
A third of the incidents were medical in nature ranging from suicidal
behavior to blood found (not reported) on the basketball court to
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someone vomiting in the facility. There were only two
confirmed alcohol incidents, but with the pool environment
being what it is and student use of water
bottles, we are confident there are some cases of
alcohol not being reported or caught. The WREC also
had seven suspected thefts. These incidents tend to be
phones left out that for a variety of reasons the WREC
is confident were stolen and had no confirmed resolution. It is
possible the owners found their phones and did not inform WREC
staff. It is very common for WREC customers to report items stolen
only to find they left their belongings in a different locker or staff had
placed them in lost and found.
2 Concepts. The WREC application is a Fusion product that allows
information to flow easily from point of sale and membership to students’
handheld devices. The obvious benefit is easy mobile access
to WREC information and sales opportunities for students on the go.
Connect 2 Concepts is the WREC’s new facility wide software that
will replace a lot of paper, create numerous efficiencies, and replace
Maintenance Connect. Created by campus recreation professionals,
Connect 2 Concepts is a web based product that allows
easy cross shift communication, digital departmental checklists, data
collection and mining, etc. Key student front line employees will carry
iPads during their shifts to insure immediate access to retrieve
and document vital information. All other staff can access the same
information via a work computer. An example of one small piece
of initial implementation will be the ability to complete an Incident/
Accident form from the iPad. This feature will include the ability to
attach a photo to the document and depending on what boxes are
checked on the form (911 called, etc.), automatically email the form
and photo the area supervisor and Director. Connect 2 will also allow
for digital signatures for Guest Waivers. Something the WREC
has been unable to do until this point as guests are not part of the
campus database.
More information on Connect 2 Concepts is available at:
https://www.connect2concepts.com
A push for the committee moving forward in the area of incidents
and accidents is training for those completing and certifying the
forms regarding the topic of near misses. Near misses are when an
incident or accident occurs and major injury or financial loss was
preventable and only narrowly/luckily avoided. Only one equipment
failure near miss was reported this year. Most forms left this
area unmarked.
The Technology committee has been active in 2016-17 adding a
new WREC application and starting the implementation of Connect
The primary responsibilities of the Staff Training Committee include
staff recognition, enhance awareness of WREC and AS policies and
procedures, and coordinate the All-Staff Training in the fall as well
as Dead Week Pancake BWRECfast. The All-Staff Training was already
discussed in the Student Employee section of this document
and Pancake BWRECfast is a self-explanatory semester end celebration/thank
you for WREC student employees. In 2016-17, however,
the Staff Training Committee made a concerted effort to insure similar
training on central issues occurs across WREC areas.
As previously mentioned, all WREC student staff start with a onehour
on-boarding program. To ensure that messages that are shared
in that on-boarding are repeated and expanded upon across all
areas, the Staff Training Committee created a schedule for area
supervisors to utilize at their monthly meetings with staff. With staff
meetings typically being an hour long, centralized topics last about
20
21

15 minutes and change monthly to include such topics as EAP refreshers,
Workman’s Comp, Negligence, Harassment, Hostile Work
Place, etc.
Lastly, the Staff Training Committee created a WREC Student Employee
Appreciation Week this year to coincide with National Student
Employee Appreciation Week in April. Each day there were
snacks or an activity that employees who were off shift or on break
could stop by and enjoy at their leisure. Highlights included pro-staff
serving homemade baked goods to students all day and a student
employee wall of fame where students could leave positive messages
for one another recognizing their hard work for the WREC. Below
is the promo video sent to student staff.
https://youtu.be/XIlpB0_N5bE
Also, worthy of note, is the WREC’s representation on numerous
campus committees. This representation has been consistent through
the years. 2016/17 representation includes, but is not limited to, the
Trans Gender Task Force, Student Affairs Diversity Committee, EOP
Mentor, Diversity Academy, Wildcat Welcome Week, various campus
hiring committees and every unique student Wildcat Welcome
forum in the fall.
RECREATIONAL SPORTS
Recreational Sports (Rec Sports) and the WREC continue to have
a fantastic working relationship. When explaining the differences
between the organizations to students during WREC on-boarding,
discussion centers around funding and programming. However, it is
also emphasized that if both parties are doing their jobs right that
services appear seamless and the average student is probably not
aware of the difference.
Rec Sports and WREC staff are completely intertwined. From creation
of the WREC mission and values and biweekly staff meetings
to policy enforcement and committee work, Rec Sports’ thumb
print is all over the WREC, including, and perhaps most importantly,
WREC culture. It is easily argued that Rec Sports does way more to
impact the WREC than the reverse.
The three main programs operated by Rec Sports are Intramurals,
Sport Clubs and Summer Camps. Intramurals, Chico State students
playing Chico State students in a variety of sports, serves the largest
number of people. While its popularity remains strong overall,
participation numbers have been on a slight decline in recent years.
Suggested contributing factors include sport specialization in early
adolescence. This early sport identification leads to a singular focus
and reduced abilities in other sports. A natural outcome is students’
desire to remain in the highest possible competitive level of their
chosen sport. This fact leads some students to identify more with the
singular nature of Sport Club opportunities than Intramurals. In addition,
this generation of students seem to have a fear to commit to a
six-week league and playoffs. Rec Sports is combating this commitment
phobia by offering shorter leagues and one-day tournaments.
With this adaptation and new sport offerings, Intramural programming
will remain strong for the foreseeable future. Rec Sports mainly
uses Acker and Shurmer Gyms for its indoor programming but the
WREC does host some intramural basketball, volleyball and hosts
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23

the entire indoor soccer program.
As mentioned, Sport Club participation
continues to grow.
With 19 current competitive
teams, five recreational clubs,
and more striving for recognition
each year, it is clear that students
crave the competition and social network
these teams provide. While not
NCAA sanctioned, sport club teams
do compete inter-collegiately and while
they do receive some campus funding
the vast majority of their budgets come
from their own dues and fundraising. All
teams have an affiliation with a national
governing body and have the ability
to compete for regional and national
championships. Most teams employ
coaches but are run by student officers
under the administrative and advisory
guidance of Rec Sports. Sport Clubs
more closely resemble a varsity athletics
model than they do an intramural
model.
Due to its growth, Sport Clubs have, and will be, a major focus for
NIRSA and the CSU. Issues such as risk management associated with
travel, concussion protocol, the requirement of athletic trainers, etc.,
are in the forefront as the industry looks for consistency and standardization.
The complexity around sport club management also creates
striking student development opportunities for team officers. The
aforementioned concerns along with the size of the teams’ budgets,
the employment of coaches, league affiliations, grade checks, etc.,
create powerful resume builders for team leaders. Only the men’s
and women’s water polo teams practice at the WREC at this time. All
their matches are held tournament style but not at the WREC.
Recreational Clubs differ from their Sport Club team counterparts in
that they only participate for the enjoyment and thus competition,
travel, funding, etc. are not part of the equation. Organizations of
this type include mainly dance based clubs. The campus cheerleaders
are also a recreational club.
Adventure Day Camp (ADC) is Rec
Sports’ summer camp for local youth. A
tradition in campus recreation, summer
youth programming serves a funding source while also
connecting campus with the community. ADC is in its
35th year and is a weekly, non-competitive, participation
based recreation program for children aged 6-12.
The entire ADC program is held at the Acker and Shurmer Gym
complex with only a one hour daily swim occurring at the WREC.
On the horizon for Rec Sports is the impending retirement of its Director.
The remainder of this section is the sole speculation of the WREC
Director. An educated guess as to this retirement date is sometime in
the fall of 2017. Due to the aforementioned relationship of Rec Sports
and the WREC, this departure is of great concern. When viewing
this upcoming retirement a year or more ago, the potential outcomes
were numerous. Would the position be filled? Would there be a reorganization?
However, with recent changes within the
Vice President of Student
Affair office, it would
seem that the best
possible outcome is
now likely.
The interim Vice
President and
temporary
Associate
Vice
President
have been
avid supporters
of Rec
Sports. They
understand the
student development
opportu-
24

nities and positive evening programming Rec sports provides. This
fact, combined, with what will likely be a reserved approach to
change prior to a new Vice President appointment, seem to point
to the Rec Sports Director position being filled as is.
This potential outcome is most advantageous due to Rec Sports’ facility
access and funding. As a state side program, Rec Sports’ access
to green space as well as Acker and Shurmer Gyms is vital to its
success. Furthermore, its ability to use these same facilities for ADC
is important to one of its income sources. Finally, as a state program
its access to IRA funding provides valuable resources for equipment
purchasing and more. While unification under the WREC was seen
as one possible post retirement direction, the ability to serve students
seems best under this scenario based on potential charge-backs
along with facility and funding access issues.
To best navigate the impending leadership change within the Division
of Student Affairs and Student Life and Leadership, it is the
opinion of the WREC Director that internal appointments for both
the Director of Rec Sports and Student Life and Leadership is optimal.
This holds true especially of the reporting lines continue as they
are currently. It is important that the WREC Director be part of any
search committee for the next Director of Recreational Sports and
preferably for the Director of Student Life and Leadership as well.
FACILITIES
With the WREC now eight years old, a building review is in order.
Most of the building’s current needs are cosmetic in nature. Almost
the entire interior could use repainting. Poorly patched holes, cracks
due to building settling, etc., have created this need. Fortunately, despite
its size, the WREC has very little drywall. However, due to the
scope of the job and to insure quality and continuity it would wise to
consider an outside contractor.
Thanks to an assist from FMS, the WREC front landscaping turned
out to be a job well done during 2016-17. Moving forward, landscaping
on 1st and 2nd Streets will need to be addressed with priority
given to 2nd Street. Given their unique micro climates, serious
consideration needs to be given to dry or minimalist landscaping
along 2nd Street.
The Aquatic Coordinator has taken over the “back-of-the-house” responsibilities
for the pool and spa as Bob prepares to retire. So far,
he has shown good ownership and aptitude with regards to this
duty. While it easy to mimic a preventative maintenance plan, only
time will tell if he possesses the intuitive instincts and mechanical
tinkering skills to notice, diagnose and troubleshoot problems as his
predecessor. This is important because Bob was able to save the AS
significant dollars with his skill set by handling issues internally or at
least maintaining them until the WREC’s third-party vendor, Knorr,
could be on site to address.
With this in mind, the WREC is seriously considering re-entering a
limited contractual arrangement with Knorr. By doing so, the WREC
receives priority scheduling of service and reduced hourly rates.
Most importantly, the WREC would have an insurance policy that
would help minimize downtime for student customers for a reactive
maintenance issue. Obviously, insuring minimal downtime is a point
of emphasis throughout the WREC regardless of facility space or
equipment piece. This approach is even more important at the pool
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27

ecause, for example, while the WREC has 25 treadmills, it only has
one pool. If it is out of service it can completely curtail the exercise
choice for numerous students for several days.
The pool and spa are also in need of tile replacement. The reason
for their replacement needs are different. The spa has water that
goes underneath its accessibility cap. The water then goes on and
behind the vertical tile face. Minerals deposits form on the face of
the tile causing nearly irreversible stains. In addition, minerals deposit
behind the tile ultimately pushing it away from the wall.
The pool tile is breaking due to forces from the surrounding pool
deck concrete. It is extremely hard to determine if those forces are
due to a design or build flaw or to natural movements of the deck.
Unfortunately, there is enough doubt and blame to go around that
legal action seems pointless. Repair experts the WREC has consulted
seem focused on cosmetic repairs and not addressing underlying
causes.
As-built drawings for the pool and a few pool photos from that time
have been located. The goal is to put this information in front of both
Holiday Pools and Ricardo Carrillo from FMS later this summer. Ricardo
has strong feelings about the cement pour of the WREC pool
siting its design for a monolithic pour and the multiple pours that actually
took place. Holiday Pools was brought out to provide a repair
bid but during their visit really impressed with their desire to identify
the root cause. Supplemental reference checking with In Motion and
others confirmed the knowledge and integrity of this vendor. Unfortunately,
what was supposed to be a 2017 summer project will now
be delayed. It is important to do this project right the first time. It is
believed that the inconvenience created by waiting, combined with
potentially higher repair costs up front, will give the WREC and its
student customers a better end product, reduced down time, and
ultimately a cheaper repair in the long run.
The pool deck overlay that was done close to two years ago has
never held up well. The overlay was done to address deterioration
issues in the original deck that seem to be related chemicals in the
water. This is believed to be the case because the deterioration was
most prevalent in the locations where the most water got on the deck.
The overlay installer has been out several times to “patch” spots that
have not adhered well. The vendor has even had a manufacturer’s
representative out to see the results. One of the representatives suggested
reasons for spot failure was that the applications were being
done in less than ideal weather conditions.
The most recent plan to resolve the problem was to close the pool
for several days this summer to create the most ideal conditions for a
final repair attempt. Unfortunately, the aforementioned tile issue repairs
would need to take place first as the overlay comes right up to
the expansion joints that would be addressed during the tile repair.
So, the overlay project has also been postponed until next summer.
If its final attempt does not permanently fix the problem the WREC
will be seeking some sort of refund of the project.
Simultaneously, the WREC has entered into an agreement with the
campus Engineering Capstone program to have a slack-line support
system designed, fabricated and installed at the pool. While
this project affords the students involved with its design a year-long
real-world learning opportunity, it will ultimately allow WREC customers
a unique aquatic experience. Furthermore, it helps bolster a
previously weak aquatic programming schedule while also allowing
for cross programming with AO.
Additional pool related facility issues in 2016/17 include the replacement
of both the pool and spa chlorine feeders and the installation
of a permanent pace clock. Installed by FMS, the new pool
pace clock provides swimmers with a high quality long term solution
to cheap, often broken, poolside clocks. Feeders work by having
water sprayed over chlorine briquettes and the mixture going back
into the system. WREC Maintenance staff performed twice monthly
cleaning and maintenance on the previous units but after seven plus
years of constant feeding, the feeders were breaking down more
frequently and required replacement.
Similarly, the vast majority of the WREC’s pool furniture has been on
site since the building’ opening. The equipment has served patrons
well. Some has been replaced in ones and twos over time but at this
point the vast majority is from the original purchase. WREC Maintenance
has done a great job having some of the units reupholstered
in an effort to save money. Furthermore, they have cannibalized
parts from old units to sustain the life cycle of others. However, it is
now time to replace 90 percent of all furniture. Surprisingly, Costco
provides the best option, by far, for the money. Current lounge chairs
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29

cost $126 at Costco and anything of comparable quality is $300 or
more. WREC intent was to purchase this July 1 with the approved
capital expenditure, however, all local stores were sold out by then
and this particular lounge chair is not available on line. Another
purchase attempt will be made in Spring 2018.
After eight years, storage is becoming an issue at the WREC. Furniture
and equipment that is not being used but is also still wanted
along with program equipment that is used intermittently is stacking
up. The WREC has never invested in true storage infrastructure in
either the MAC or Basketball storage areas like the AO Equipment
Room or Maintenance has. This will likely be an upcoming capital
expenditure.
The carpet tiles in the back offices and the surface tile in the Climbing
Gym are nearing the end of their life cycles. Much of the carpet
is fine but the obvious path created by the building layout can only
be steam cleaned so many times. In the next one to two years a first
attempt will be made to replace only what is needed with overstock
or purchase. Failing that a full replacement will be warranted.
Despite not being designed for Climbing Gym use, the tiles in this
facility have served the WREC well. Unfortunately, the uneven use
they receive as landing spots or just walking through the gym, have
caused some to deteriorate faster than others. This uneven support
can create hazardous conditions for belaying or landing. The WREC
has just begun to research replacement options.
The decision was made this year to deviate from our usual methodology
for high cleaning, bulb and ballast replacement and window
washing. Traditionally, the WREC has rented a boom lift once a year
in a joint effort between custodial and maintenance to address the
aforementioned issues. However, an evaluation of the cost of rental
and annual training combined with staff hours lost on other jobs
and boom lift use efficiency made the use of a third-party expert an
easy choice. With the exception of maintenance relayed tasks, the
vendor was able to accomplish in 1.5 days what WREC staff was
doing in an entire business week. While a bit more time consuming,
the WREC is still able to handle bulb and ballast replacement with
the WREC owned man lift.
Moving forward, the WREC Maintenance staff needs comprehensive
training on the handling, storage and disposal of hazardous
waste. With no internal expertise on the subject, there is little doubt
that mercury based bulbs are being co-mingled with batteries, improper
storage containers are being used along with poor labeling,
materials are on site too long, etc. Such violations can be not only
dangerous but are also fine-able offenses. In addition, the WREC’s
pool chemical use and storage alone create safety concerns.
Clearly, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) is a resource on the
matter. However, there seems to be a disconnect regarding their ability
to serve the auxiliaries. Recent discussions between the WREC
and EHS seem promising regarding training. EHS has shown a willingness
to help both on the local level, with WREC Maintenance,
and at the global level with AS as a whole. With safety as the main
focus, EHS is willing to do this free of charge until forced to do
otherwise. The WREC has begun by receiving PDFs from EHS on
the aforementioned topics but a larger discussion looms for the AS
regarding EHS provided, pre-packaged, on-line tier training.
In an effort to define future repair and replacement expenses, the
WREC needs a roof evaluation from a roofing expert. Other than occasional
leaks during heavy rains (Otto has been very receptive to
addressing), there have been no roof issues. Visually speaking, there
are no obvious signs of wear or deterioration. However, at eight
years of age, it is wise to have some sort of prognosis for longevity.
Similarly, recent installer inspections of all of the WREC’s wood
floors and the MAC floor lead the WREC to believe that the floors
will be usable for the foreseeable future. The wood floors have some
cosmetic issues but the infrastructure remains intact. One complaint
about the WREC’s brand of wood flooring is it is soft and susceptible
to cosmetic damage. A complete sanding, resurfacing and lining of
the floors is likely in the next five years to address cosmetic scratches.
Otherwise the wood and MAC floors are holding up nicely.
The WREC continues to work strategically when purchasing new
fitness equipment. It is a fine line to spend responsibly, keep up with
industry trends, meet students’ needs, and create a safe environment
with enough equipment to meet peak demand.
Currently, the industry is focused on functional training. In short, this
is fitness designed to train the body for the activities of daily life.
This is in contrast to competition style training or focusing on glamour
muscles. Functional training exercises use a lot of body weight
30
31

esistance and moving weight in space. This focus reduces the need
for traditional singular plane weight machines. With this in mind, the
WREC will be slowly transitioning away from such machines and
more functional training apparatus such as squat racks, benches,
stretching areas, etc.
In 2016-17, the arms on all office chairs were replaced free of
charge via warranty. There are two different style of WREC office
chairs that occupy all offices and the conference room. Both styles
of arms were replaced totaling approximately 50 chairs. The chairs
themselves seem to be in good working order. The arm replacement
should extend the chairs’ life cycle by another five to eight years.
This year saw a total of 917 completed maintenance requests including
preventative and reactive projects. That total is down slightly
from 986 last year. Included in this year’s total was the change out
of over 3,600 locker batteries for our Digilocks on both locker room
and daily use lockers.
From a utilities standpoint, the WREC had experienced fairly standard
costs during 2016/17. Gas was up about $6,000 over last
year but winter was cold and wet and this year’s total isn’t even in
the top three since opening. The WREC’s cost for chilled water (air
conditioning) has also increased over the last two years but that is
to the price per ton for chilled water. The amount of chilled water
used has actually decreased over the last two years. Regular water
use was up over last year but 2015/16 saw little to no landscape
watering due to the drought. While up 2016/17, WREC water use
was only the fourth highest dollar total since opening. Electricity
use this year was the lowest in five years. With AS Sustainability’s
impending implementation of Building OS and additional sub-metering,
the WREC will gain more insight into the exact cost
for showers, laundry, pool, etc. which can only assist
in decision making and stewarding student dollars.
Finally, looking to the future, it is worth considering
expanding the WREC footprint to include the current
landscaping area to First and
Cherry Streets. While this space
currently provides a decent aesthetic
feature, it is not programmable
and is a somewhat labor-intensive
greenspace in an on again/
off again drought environment.
To grow the WREC in this way
would provide much needed space
to expand the Personal Training
Gym, weight room and to create
an AO Adventure Center. With
the industry moving more toward
functional training, space for the
Personal Training Gym is a must.
Fitness movements are becoming
more dynamic and require more
space and more unique equipment.
Similarly, in the weight room,
which is already at maximum capacity
at peak hours, the demand
for squat racks and more exercise
movements in space requires a
bigger footprint.
Lastly, the opportunity to provide a singular home for one of outdoor
recreation’s premiere campus programs just makes sense. It would
be possible with such an expansion to centralize trip sales, the climbing
gym, Bike Cart, staff offices, etc. Such a storefront would enable
AO to create an even larger identity, beyond its typical customers,
and make more and deeper student connections with more staff and
customers.
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33

WREC USERSHIP
Open Recreation is, and will continue to be, the bread and butter of
the WREC. Open Recreation is defined as any activity that students
can participate in that does not require special training, an additional
fee, or assistance from a staff member. So, Open Recreation
includes, but is not limited to, weights, cardio, basketball, volleyball,
indoor soccer, table tennis, bouldering wall (not the climbing wall),
swimming, etc. Understandably, Open Recreation constitutes the
largest WREC program and is considered a drop-in activity.
Philosophically, it is important that Open Recreation be viewed as a
stand-alone program. Its drop-in nature allows students the flexibility
to schedule their fitness around their academic and work demands.
These demands obviously vary from student to student and day to
day. So, insuring that there is always at least one basketball court
without a program, one pool lane designated for open recreation,
etc. is crucial to meeting the needs of all students.
This commitment to Open Recreation as its own program is vital
throughout the field of campus recreation when considering the scarcity
of resources and facilities. It is common for academics and/or
athletics to covet additional facility time and quality facilities. When
looking at traditional use patterns of campus recreational facilities it
is easy to determine slow and peak hours. Academics and athletics
will seek to partner for, or just commandeer, these slower times. This
is when it is most important to remember the purpose of Campus
Recreation, the role of Open Recreation as a program, and who is
funding the facilities and programs.
During the 2016/17 year, the WREC had a total of 589,646 student
visits, the vast majority of which were Open Recreation users. These
visits were made up of 14,202 unique users. In other words, over
71% of Chico Students utilized the WREC this year. This percentage
is in line with most other CSU campuses and is well above the
national median over the same period which was 55%. It is worth
noting that WREC statistics looked at total enrolled students for both
semesters which is higher than a two-semester average use by most
schools. This fact actually makes the WREC user percentage artificially
lower.
WREC usership is strongest Mondays through Wednesdays. This
trend has remained true since the WREC’s opening. Our hours over
time have come to reflect this pattern by having slightly shorter hours
on Thursday and Fridays along with specific weekend times.
WREC 2016/17 usership mirrors the campus make-up across gender
and ethnicity with only fractional differences. As a Hispanic Serving
Institution, it is worthy of note that while this student population represented
24.6% of campus enrollment this year, it represented 28.2%
of the WREC usership. Both males and females using the WREC,
regardless of year in school, had higher grade point averages than
THE WREC IN COMPARISON:
CAL
POLY
SLO
CAL
POLY
POMONA
CSU
NORTHRIDGE
SAC
STATE
SAN DIEGO
STATE
CSU
CHICO
34
CSU
USERSHIP
RATES
75% 62% 82% 75% 55% 71%
35

their non WREC using counterparts. This fact also held true regardless
of frequency of use. All this said, it makes sense that WREC
users also had a higher persistence rate than the campus average.
As mentioned in the introduction, recruitment and retention are
WREC priorities. The WREC’s higher persistence rate coincides
with the previously mentioned 2016 WREC Customer Survey where
53.4% of respondents said that the WREC had a moderate to high
impact on their decision to remain enrolled. Similarly, 46.2% said
that the WREC had a moderate to high impact on their decision to
attend Chico State. The WREC had additional positive impact on
students’ feeling of well-being, interest in being healthy, respect for
others and more.
This same survey provided insight into why non-users were not using
the WREC. Obviously, the goal was to see what reasons, if any, the
WREC could address for student non-use. The single biggest reason
for non-participation was not having enough time. The next most
cited reasons for non-use, and ones the WREC might be able to address,
were not being aware of the programs and being somewhat
intimidated.
Before and after this survey the WREC has tried every conceivable
angle to address the responses of marketing and intimidation. From
meeting with dorm floors and Resident Advisors to providing free
introduction classes to making equipment available in multiple parts
of the facility, the WREC has made every effort to combat perceived
advertising and environmental factors by non-users.
Results of these efforts are mixed. Ratios of users to non-users remain
steady, many more female students are using weights than ever before,
and free introductory classes were poorly attended. The Assessment
Committee will repeat this survey in Spring 2019 and more
will be known then. However, it may be hard to get a clear view of
the issue since it is possible that some non-users sub-consciously cite
reasons of awareness and intimidation in lieu real reasons such as
disinterest, laziness, etc.
37

"WREC en Fuego was
AWESOME! We should have this
event every semester!"
WREC PROGRAMS
"Zach is
my personal trainer
and he is amazing. He is
very understanding about
my littel experience and works
wth it very kindly and patiently.
Also, I came into my training
yesterday with a pain in my
necka nd my back. He said 'Ok,
let's get rid of it'... Now I don't
have to go to a chiropractor.
He really knows what he is
"We loved
doing."
Ballroom Dance — please
have more workshopes like
this one."
WREC Programs encompass AO, Personal Training, Aquatics, Safety
Courses, Special Events and Campus Collaborations. For the purposes
of this report, AO has been addressed in a separate section
due its size, uniqueness of services and inherent risks. Similarly, Recreational
Sports has its own section.
In 2016/17, the WREC hosted 42 Special Events and 15 Campus
Collaborations. Special Events are defined as WREC self-initiated
programs. Most of these activities center around fitness and wellness
such as Fuego Remixed, Cumbia Workshop, and Walktober while
others are part of a larger awareness campaign either with campus
or nationally such as National Pink Shirt Day and Love Everybody
Week.
Campus Collaborations are programming partnerships aimed at
reaching a larger or targeted audience of students. Some of this
year’s successful collaborations include Yoga for All Bodies (Trans
Week), EOP Pool Party, hosting Cats in the Community rallying point
and of end of day BBQ and Housing’s Hall Leaders Sleepover. Other
collaboration partners include GSEC, Housing, and Sustainability.
In total, WREC Special Events and Campus Collaborations totaled
61 days of programming. This figure does not even include the numerous
one-day tournaments Rec Sports hosted in everything from
table tennis to video game competitions.
As alluded to in the previous paragraph, this programming is so important
on many levels. First, specialized programming may reach a
student that has yet to take part in all the WREC has to offer. This is
often the case with a health-related topic or dance workshop. Second,
regardless of the number of students a program serves, it is a
chance for the WREC to make a personal connection. With the exception
of the front desk, fitness staff, and climbing gym, interaction
with student customers can be minimal due to the open recreational
"More Ballroom Dance!"
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39

nature of the activities the WREC provides. These connections are
immensely important because, as previously mentioned, connectedness
is the number one predictor of student success.
Therefore, traditional measurement metrics of program offerings are
the not the best tools for determining program success. Instead of
focusing solely on the size of the event and number of students, the
WREC focuses on breadth of program offerings and anecdotal information
to determine program value. The WREC has struggled with
idea of satisfaction surveys for these events simply due to their frequency
and not wanting to over-saturate students on data collection.
The millennial tendency for being non-committal, or committing at
the last possible moment, is a current challenge to successful WREC
programming. Programs with a pre-registration format may not provide
a true representation of the level of student interest. WREC staff
have still put on successful activities but have had to be more flexible
in how and when students engage. In turn, this had led to both
capping event participation as well as making events more scalable.
A major programming success this year was the creation of the Zen
Den. A great partnership with the BMU, the Zen Den provides a quiet
place for students to unwind and even sleep between
classes. The American College Health Association
(ACHA), cited in their most recent national assessment
in Spring 2016 that over 90% of
students said they had at least one problem
with sleepiness during daytime activities
in the last seven days. The Zen Den is a
convenient student opportunity to address
even a small portion of that statistic. The
obvious hope is the more students recharge,
the more successful they will be at school.
Another program success has been the WREC
marketing materials. Without a consistent centralized
marketing presence, the WREC internal student led team has
provided a high volume and high-quality product in a timely
fashion.
Examples of programming marketing materials:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5TOfcarxeAKNUpZbk1RckFZMm8
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5TOfcarxeAKOVotd3dYQ09aQlE
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5TOfcarxeAKVUNTSFd3QVJ4OXM
2016/17 was the first time in WREC history with an Aquatics Coordinator.
With this position beginning after the start of the Fall 2016
semester, the impact to aquatic programming was not really felt until
Spring 2017. Even then, the programming schedule was set but this
new position did allow for a division of labor. The new Aquatics
Coordinator was responsible for the remainder for the year’s pool
programs such as multiple pool parties and Cats in the Community
BBQ. There were ten total aquatic special events during this year.
Moving forward, this position will be responsible for all traditional
aquatics programming and designing new activities. Efforts
here will include working with AO and the WREC Director
on a new slackline project, creating distance
events that patrons can complete over time and
earn prizes, creating one-day inner tube water
polo events, partnering with Fitness for aquatic
boot camps and more. The challenge will be to
find the sweet spot in aquatic programming between
hardcore lap swimmers and the Vegas pool
scene culture that already exists at the WREC pool.
Although the position has only been in existence for
a short time, successes have been many. First, the WREC
student lifeguards now have a knowledgeable and passionate
supervisor whose office is on the pool deck. This fact creates a
home and advocate for a group of employees who had literally
and figuratively been on an island previously. Second, this culture
change can be seen in protocol changes that positively
impact safety and deck cleanliness. Third, the
aforementioned increased programming and
expansion of safety courses. 438 students
took advantage of six different types of safety
courses during 2016/17. This represents
an estimated 25% increase over the highest
the previous year’s total.
Group Exercise continued to be an enormous
student draw in 2016/17 as in previous years.
Classes include everything from martial arts to
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dance to spin. These opportunities are free to guests and have numerous
offerings weekly. One-on-one Personal Training, for which
there is a fee, was down this year but still managed to serve over
1,000 students. Group Personal Training, like Boot Camp, was significantly
off this year and less than half what it was two years ago.
The WREC is currently trying to identify and address causes for this
downturn.
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WREC DIRECTOR ASSESSMENT
01. PROVIDES STRAIGHT TALK: 4.6
• The most distinguishing trait about Curtis is this area. It is greatly
appreciated and builds trust. I am more likely to complete a
task and do so in the manner expected of me.
• Gives clear expectations and deadlines.
• Provides feedback that helps improve my performance.
• I appreciate that Curtis keep us in the loop about all things
pertaining to the WREC. It allows us to be proactive if needed
and sometimes just gives us time to accept decisions/procedures
that we don't necessarily think may be in our best interest.
Curtis gives us background and rationale, which is always
useful.
• Yes — one of Curtis's strengths.
• As straight as it can come.
02. DEMONSTRATES RESPECT: 4.3
• Discussions always involve how to best serve students and employees
— I remember discussion whether or not to inform a
student, who had fallen unconsciously, that their account is to
be suspended pending a doctor's note. Curtis was adamant
about waiting a day or two because the student had already
gone through a difficult time. This shows compassion, empathy,
and respect.
• I often hear Curtis speak on behalf of student groups that often
get marginalized by society and how we can create a center
that incorporates them in our planning.
• By seeking input from all areas
• We have a small, but tight-knit staff and much of "can-do"
attitude comes from the respect and expectation Curtis puts
out to us. I think he knows he couldn't do it without us and I
appreciate that respect.
03. CREATES TRANSPARENCY: 4.6
• This is a big trait for Curtis and it is evident in his work style —
I never have any uncertainty or doubts on where he stands on
issues and policies.
• As part of the "core team" I feel that I have the information
and background I need to do my job. I don't feel like Curtis
tries to hide or hold back information.
04. SHOWS DECISIVENESS: 4
• This is a trait that I know Curtis values very much. It goes hand
in hand with his goal to do things efficiently. He is timely in
making decisions that have the best possible outcome.
• Curtis is intentional in allowing others the time and space to
arrive at their own conclusions. His questions of inquiry allow
others to evaluate and aspire for better things.
• Confident in decision making but makes sure employees feel
opinions are valued when applicable.
• However, still willing to change perspective when presented
with compelling information.
• This is a difficult one in the environment/framework we often
work within. I feel Curtis knows the path he wants to follow,
but sometimes it gets taken on a detour. I think he has learned
quickly how to maneuver his way through it all.
• A nice balance of making decisions while also taking input
from"the team".
05. RIGHTS WRONGS: 4.3
• Being a straight-talker and very decisive can sometimes cause
Curtis to step on people's toes. People can sometimes take
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things the wrong way. However, when it matters the most (and
it's people he cares about) I've seen Curtis acknowledge and
right those wrong-doings.
• Let's staff know in a fair and constructive manner when something
may have gone awry.
• Values justice, but sometimes views situations as black and
white rather than gray areas.
06. SHOWS LOYALTY: 5
• Curtis's passion for recreation, sports, and wellness is evident
in his work and personal life. So I don't doubt he has great
loyalty and pride in the WREC.
• This blind loyalty to the Giants I will never understand.
• I think Curtis shows incredible loyalty to his staff and backs us
whenever and wherever he can.
• Very loyal to staff, job, and students.
07. IS COMPASSIONATE: 4.3
• Curtis has a coaching ability and style when developing students
and pro-staff alike.
• I believe our culture is such that we do really care about each
other and that leads to compassion and wanting to help people
whenever possible.
• Yes and has displayed this by going out of his way to have
student staff and pro-staff be recognized for their efforts.
• Has the ability to empathize.
08. DELIVERS RESULTS: 4.6
• This is a high mark for Curtis through and though. I see results
in a timely manner — one area of improvement is with our
dealings with FMS.
• I've heard Curtis say lately that he wants decisions to be "data
and/or results" driven and I think he demonstrates that with his
commitment to keep pushing forward.
• By setting clear directions for departments.
• Very results/goals oriented.
09. GETS BETTER: 4
• The word "aspires" has often been mentioned from Curtis in
recent days. I feel he incorporates this always in his work and
personal life
• Continuously focused on staff development and bettering services.
• This assessment is an example of his desire to do so.
• Always working to this end, especially by being open to ideas
and opinions.
• Looks for feedback actively to make improvements.
10. PUTS PEOPLE AT EASE 4.3
• Curtis brings to the WREC a great sense of humor, engaging
personality, and team-working goals.
• Curtis makes an effort in his choices of words and the manner
in which he discusses difficult topics with people.
• By making himself available when needed and willingly answering
staff questions.
• Generally yes, but I would not say it's one of his strong suits.
Curtis's directness combined with his physical demeanor can
be intimidating. That being said, anyone who spends more
than a few minutes with him will realize there is no real need
to be intimidated.
• Good at conversation and keeping things light/fun — can
sometimes be intimidating.
11. CONFRONTS REALITY: 4.6
• Curtis is a realist.
• With his "hands on" approach, he is very aware of what is
going on both within our industry and our organization. Curtis
knows what is possible and that's what he goes for.
• Willing to make adjustments to make the best of difficult situations.
• Heads on, no holds barred! Sometimes a little too proactive,
task-orientation can be tough in a bureaucratic/political environment.
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12. CLARIFIES EXPECTATIONS: 5
• Good communication. Rarely do I leave a conversation where
I don't know what is expected of me.
• Provides clear sense of direction for me and other WREC areas.
• Usually very clear with expectations.
13. BUILDS & MAINTAINS RELATIONSHIPS: 4.3
• Creates a strong WREC professional staff culture.
• Yes. Encourages a fun (while still productive) workplace. Works
towards the WREC being a community.
• Both within the WREC and around campus.
• Seems to know everyone in the industry.
• Culture, culture, culture! Curtis has done a great job keeping
"the family" together and growing. We gather socially, which
we all enjoy and strengthens our bonds. I can't imagine working
in any other kind of environment... I know how lucky we
are.
16. TAKES INITIATIVE: 4.6
• Always. Leads by example. Unafraid of having difficult conversations,
finishing projects.
• Let's others lead as well — actually promotes this.
• Never settles, always looking for new areas of improvement.
17. KEEPS COMMITMENTS: 4
• Yes, and when it is not possible Curtis communicates well
enough to reschedule.
• Also develops opportunities and provides training and coaching.
18. EXTENDS TRUST: 4
• Many of the qualities mentioned above lead to being a person
that people can trust.
• Empowers employees to think and speak for themselves.
• Trusts us to do our jobs without micromanaging.
14. PRACTICES ACCOUNTABILITY: 4
• A nice balance of making decisions while also taking input
from"the team".
• Always a good expectation.
• Holds employees as well as himself accountable.
• Sometimes I wonder if Curtis even has any other words in his
vocabulary other than this one — he brings this to his surroundings
and to himself.
15. LISTENS FIRST: 4.6
• Always seeking input or feedback from individuals, groups,
and customers.
• Very much so. Even when in the middle of an email or project,
Curtis demonstrates this quality very well and it is greatly
appreciated.
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