Mission
The Marquette University Department of Campus Recreation embraces the Jesuit philosophy of education in developing the mind, body and spirit and fosters the out-of-classroom experience. Campus Recreation will facilitate the transformational learning experience by engaging students in a comprehensive wellness and activities program to develop and promote healthy lifestyles, leadership development, and lifetime skills and sportsmanship.
The grand opening of the new Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility was a success, seeing one-third of the student body come through our doors for the first day of the spring 2025 semester. The facility is a 195,000-square-foot reimagining of health, wellness and recreation services on campus.
Wellness + Helfaer Recreation is home to Campus Recreation, the Marquette University Medical Clinic, the Center for Student Wellness and Health Promotion, and the Counseling Center. The new building is the first time bringing these areas from varied corners of campus into one place, allowing Marquette to comprehensively provide a continuum of wellness services that are integrative, inclusive, accessible and responsive to the changing needs of the campus community.
“The new Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility gives us plenty of opportunities to evolve our current offerings and create exciting new programs,” said James Friel, the director of Campus Recreation. “I feel very grateful to have our programs intertwined with other departments housed in the building and I know our students will flourish.”
Facility Description
- 115,000-plus square feet of recreation space.
- A four-court gymnasium and two multi-activity courts with basketball, volleyball, badminton, pickleball, futsal and handball lines.
- Two fitness studios and one spin studio.
- One-sixth-mile indoor running track.
- Turf area with sprint ramp.
- Four tennis courts.
- Massage therapy room.
- Fitness assessment room.
- Natatorium with a six-lane pool.
- Seven multi-purpose locker rooms.
- Multiple fitness zones.
Programming Highlights
Club Sports
Our club sports program offers 46 sports that range from nationally recognized teams such as hockey to new recreational activities such as pickleball, log rolling and boxing. The newly reimagined facility offers these clubs the ability to return to on-campus spaces by adding various new studio, aquatics and court surfaces to maximize their reach to the campus community. Our teams can now host tournaments and provide additional fundraising opportunities for each club.
Intramural Sports
The intramural sports program has boomed to include over 1,200 student participants in the fall of 2024. As of early January 2025, over 200 teams have signed up for the first season of offerings. The new Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility allows for expansion of leagues and the ability for intramural sports to accommodate almost double the number of teams for each of our offerings over the fall semester. Among the most popular are volleyball, pickleball, futsal and basketball.
Fitness Classes
Group fitness programs have gained three new spaces that are taking their classes to the next level.
The new Revolution Spin studio features a state-of-the-art 4K LED screen that’s accompanied by dynamically tuned sound and lighting that immerses students into the future of group fitness. Offerings include spin classes with various themes and intensities, barre, Pilates, Total Body Power Up, yoga, Yoga Sculpt, and Zumba.
Fun Facts
The Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility opened 50 years after the opening of the original Helfaer Recreation Center. It’s located directly on the old footprint of the building.
The facility has two dynamic art pieces: one on the exterior of the building features the echoes of Lake Michigan and one on the interior that has a built-in pulse reader.
