Looking ahead to an integrated Wellness Centre

File Photo/Photo by Victoria Panacci

There are a variety of athletic clubs at Wilfrid Laurier University featuring sports such as boxing, cricket, figure skating and sailing, among others. However, it can be argued that these clubs haven’t received the exposure they deserve at Laurier.

Tarique Plummer, President and CEO of the Students’ Union, discussed the changes that are being implemented to help the sports clubs at Laurier.

“This past year when I was running for president during the election period, I made 15 promises to the student body. One of the promises I made spoke about the sports clubs at Laurier. I worked as a sports clubs’ coordinator and I understand that the department had significant challenges; one of those was financial restrictions,” he said.

“The program is unable to expand and develop because equipment costs money, space costs money, opportunities to expose [the clubs] to the university cost money and because of these restrictions,” Plummer added.

Not only is the Students’ Union going to provide sports clubs with financial aid, there is also a plan to improve the facilities at the athletic complex.

“The discussions for that plan are still going on and we are talking to the university right now on how we can best approach this. Hopefully by the end of this year, we will have built a solid foundation. Whoever the president is next year can hopefully continue with the idea because there is significant interest.” – Tarique Plummer

“[The Students’ Union] granted the Athletic Complex a decent chunk of money that could go towards the purchase of new equipment, repair of current equipment and also to help cover the HR packages in terms of reducing overtime and providing more student jobs,” Plummer said.

The addition of new equipment and repairing the existing equipment will be completed by the end of the year.

Plummer went on to talk about expanding the Wellness Centre at Laurier, admitting that this is something that would take considerably longer to implement.

“I also spoke about the integrated Wellness Centre idea, which looks at the integration of physical and academic wellness and diversity. This is more of a long term plan that would take a couple of years to actualize,” he said.

“It looks at a bigger building that has all those important aspects of wellness in different divisions so that they are in one centralized location. The department will be able to expand significantly and make up some of the shortcomings they have.”

“The discussions for that plan are still going on and we are talking to the university right now on how we can best approach this. Hopefully by the end of this year, we will have built a solid foundation. Whoever the president is next year can hopefully continue with the idea because there is significant interest,” Plummer concluded.

There have been numerous complaints about the perceived deficiencies of the Wellness Centre by numerous students, especially over the past year.

This long term goal of an integrated Wellness Centre and helping sports clubs gain recognition are certainly steps in the right direction when it comes to improving student satisfaction at Laurier.

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