A rendering presents an aerial watch of the proposed health, wellness, health and fitness, tennis, and athletics heart.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Skidmore Faculty is embarking on a new well being, wellness, exercise, tennis, and athletics middle, with the generous assistance of a loved ones who has prolonged supported the School.
Ed and Sue Wachenheim P’85, ’88, ’01 Amy Wachenheim McCaffery ’01 and Michael McCaffery and University Trustee Kim Wachenheim Wagman ’88, P’15, and David Wagman P’15, a multigenerational loved ones with a legacy of solid support for Skidmore, are offering the lead reward to advance this significant venture. The new middle will convey with each other all factors of student overall health and wellness help — which includes psychological wellbeing and counseling wellness marketing and training physical health and wellness throughout the head, system, and spirit — in a holistic technique to university student health in just a single complex on Skidmore’s campus.
“We identify that scholar health and fitness and wellness are of the utmost worth on school campuses these days. Our relatives is happy to assist Skidmore Faculty in its efforts to maintain and fortify students in all factors of their life, from psychological well being to physical conditioning to athletics,” explained Kim Wachenheim Wagman.
“We have a unique relationship with the College’s tennis software and scholar-athletes,” extra Amy Wachenheim McCaffery.
A rendering displays the front of the proposed facility.
President Marc C. Conner expressed appreciation for the family’s continued guidance.
“Over their a long time of engagement with Skidmore, the Wachenheim spouse and children has formulated a keen knowledge of the College’s evolving demands. Their generosity demonstrates not only their deep and ongoing relationship to the institution, but also an remarkable vision for the upcoming of wellness, wellness, tennis, and athletics here,” explained President Conner. “This transformational gift will allow us to comprehend our aspiration to aid flourishing and profitable Skidmore pupils by an integrated, holistic method to well being and wellness.”
The new construction, to be crafted alongside the current Williamson Athletics Heart, will include things like Skidmore’s Wellness Middle, the Counseling Center, and Office of Wellbeing Promotions, at this time positioned in satellite spaces across campus. The new exercise heart will serve the whole Skidmore community and mix condition-of-the-artwork machines, which include totally free weights and cardio, with focused spaces for physical exercise and wellness programming these kinds of as yoga, meditation, team physical fitness, martial arts, and spin. In addition, an NCAA-caliber tennis complicated — like eight out of doors tennis courts and 4 indoor courts, varsity athletic coaching spaces, and supplemental athletic assistance — will variety a major element of the challenge.
“This is a long-awaited venture that will aid absolutely everyone in the Skidmore group,” mentioned Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Athletics Gail Cummings-Danson. “We are fully commited to a facility that is welcoming and available to all. Variety, fairness, inclusion, and sustainability will be the guiding ideas of this venture.”
New locker rooms and team assembly rooms will renew the College’s dedication to the college student-athlete practical experience at Skidmore though investing in athletics facilities for all. The present fitness center will be repurposed as a instruction facility exclusively for varsity athletics, enabling a lot more dedicated space and programming for athletes though at the same time producing place for leisure conditioning customers.
Foundational assist for the job was produced doable by a generous present from Susan Kettering Williamson ’59, for whom the Williamson Sports Middle is named. That reward especially supports the tennis complex that will be adjacent to the proposed health and wellness centre. The new out of doors courts are scheduled to be finished in 2023.
President Conner reported the full task, which will be LEED-licensed in line with Skidmore’s longstanding motivation to sustainability, could be finished as early as 2024.
The announcement follows the completion of a detailed Campus Learn Strategy by the College group earlier this calendar year. Skidmore’s Board of Trustees supplied preliminary approval to the undertaking in Oct and will overview and finalize options at its following assembly in February 2023.
In addition to supporting the Wachenheim Subject, Porter/Wachenheim Scholarships in Science and Mathematics, and the Wachenheim Gallery at the Tang Teaching Museum and Artwork Gallery, which bear the family’s title, the family has presented generously to the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences, the Skidmore Fund, the Friends of Skidmore Athletics, and Skidmore’s endowment. With this gift, that legacy carries on.
“The Wachenheim family’s support of Skidmore around the years has impacted approximately each and every component of university student lifetime on campus,” stated President Conner. “They are certainly a person of the wonderful Skidmore family members, supporting our mission of educating undergraduates and making ready college students for lives of impactful and dependable citizenship.”