Rutgers University

New Brunswick, NJ

MISSION

Rutgers University Recreation is dedicated to enhancing the university experience through innovative wellness opportunities. We strive to provide outstanding and inclusive programs and facilities while cultivating student leaders.

As of the fall of 2014, RU Recreation is now a part of the Health and Wellness Area of Student Affairs. Recreation focus’ on contributing to the success of students through wellness and developmental opportunities. Being one of the most visible and widely appreciated units within Student Affairs with hundreds of thousands student visits per year and over 600 student staff, it is understandable that we feel our students are the heart of the department. We strive to provide programming, facilities and services that will give all students the opportunity to participate.

Recreation is a vital campus resource at Rutgers helping ensure our students find a healthy mindbody. As we in the industry know, research indicates that active engagement and physical activity positively correlates to student retention and graduation rates. At RU we continue to make tremendous strides in expanding our reach on campus through collaborations and partnerships with other Student Affairs units, student organizations, university offices, athletics and academic units thereby touching more students than ever before.

FACILITIES

RU Recreation oversees four recreation centers on five campuses, and one off campus fitness center. Having a large center within each housing community provides students easy access to recreation facilities and programming. Outdoor facilities include 25 acres of athletic fields including two lit turf fields, one sport club dedicated lit turf field, skinned softball field, lit basketball courts, tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, and a roller hockey rink.

FUN FACTS

Rutgers is celebrating its 250^th Anniversary this year
RU Recreation had over 1,150,000 visitors in the 2015/16 fiscal year with over 925,000 being students.
Recreation Operations reserved over 62,000 hours in our facilities with 80% reserved for student programming
RU Recreation runs the largest 5K race in the state of New Jersey. Called the Big Chill because it is run in mid-December it attracts over 8000 entries. It is unique in that the registration fee is a new toy that will be wrapped and donated to one of over 10 charities around the state. Thousands of toys are donated each year bring smiles to many children of New Jersey.
Intramurals – unique users 10,000+, registering over 960 teams and voted one of the top 50 Intramural programs by BestColleges.com
Sport Clubs – Recreation sponsors 57 sport clubs with over 2000 athletes participating. In 2015/16, 16 clubs participated in regional or national tournament with six clubs finishing in the top 3 in national tournament play. The Powerlifting Club qualified for the world competition this summer held in Russia and finished fifth in the world in the collegiate division.
Rutgers Age Group Swim Program had 3300 swim lesson registrations over the last 12 months, and our Age Group Summer Camp had over 1100 weekly camp registrations over a 7-week period.
The RU Spa Services program offers massage, facials, henna tattooing, and eyebrow threading.
Rutgers personal training services provided over 2500 training sessions, 85% given to students.
The RU scuba program is the only 5 star rated colligate scuba program in the country.