Building a healthier future at Bethel
A new student wellness center is coming in the Fall of 2025
Bethel College is set to begin construction over the coming months on a new student wellness center on campus. The wellness center is scheduled to be completed by the fall semester of 2025. The wellness center will be located east of Goering Hall, north of Ward Tennis Center. It will provide an updated weight room, exercise room, gym space, and meeting spaces/classrooms for students and community members.
The basement of Memorial Hall has served as the campus wellness center for over 50 years. Unfortunately, it has an outdated weight room with a small additional room for other exercises. This has prompted the school to prioritize the new Wellness Center as it will be a place for students and the community to exercise.
The blueprint shows that the Wellness Center will have a spacious lobby with a rock wall and exercise equipment towards the end of the lobby space. A gym space will be added in an attempt to reduce athletics practice conflicts and help facilitate intramural sports for the student body. There will be a weight room added near the gym space with a surrounding walking track that goes around both the weight room and lifting area. Additionally, there are spaces to hold meetings, exercise classes, and even events. Lastly, a small kitchenette, bathrooms, and some spaces for storage will be present in the building. The blueprint video of the space can be found on the Bethel College Facebook page for additional information.
The College has raised around 11.1 million dollars to make this happen through various donations, grants, and fundraising. On October 11th, members of the college broke ground and marked the beginning of the building process. If all goes to plan, the space should be open and available for use within a year.