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Wichita State In Talks To Bring New YMCA To Innovation Campus

SJCF Architecture
A rendering of the new YMCA fitness facility being considered for WSU's Innovation Campus.

Wichita State University is in talks with the YMCA to build a new fitness facility on the school's Innovation Campus.

Wichita State students would automatically be Y members under the new plan and have access to other Y's in Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties.

Teri Hall, WSU vice president for student affairs, says the new facility would offer upper-end workout classes for students, a drop-in day care center, and wellness services.

Credit SJCF Architecture
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SJCF Architecture
A rendering of where the facility would be located on the Innovation Campus.

"As part of the Y, we would build a new health and wellness center that would move our counseling services and our health services in a combined space that we would be able to expand and enhance in a way that we wouldn’t be able to do without this discussion that we're having right now," Hall says.

Aquatics, the rowing team and the school's sports clubs would remain at the Heskett Center. Operating costs would mainly come from student fees at an increase of about $7.75 per credit hour.

If a plan is approved by the end this semester, students will have access to Y facilities in the metro area starting July 1. The new Y would open in the summer of 2019.

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Carla Eckels is assistant news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.