Saint Louis University Campus Recreation and Wellness

Mission

The department of Campus Recreation and Wellness helps to support and advance a culture of well-being within the Saint Louis University (SLU) community. We connect individuals to recreation and wellness programs, services, education and facilities, and celebrate their contribution to developing the whole person — mind, body and spirit. 

Description of Facility(s)

Indoor Facilities

The Simon Recreation Center is a 120,000-square-foot facility located in the heart of SLU’s north campus. The facility, named after John and Adaline Simon, opened its doors in the fall of 1981 and completed an extensive renovation and expansion project in 2007. The center features:

24,000 square feet of dedicated fitness space, there are over 200 pieces of strength and cardio equipment, inlaid platforms, functional training turf and a slam wall.
Six multipurpose, hardwood gym courts are lined for basketball, volleyball and badminton.
An indoor natatorium with six 25-meter lap lanes, a diving well with two 1-meter diving boards, a whirlpool and an elevated observation deck.
Five reservable multipurpose rooms, a cycling studio, an activity room and an open lounge with a kitchenette.
A bouldering wall.
A 1/7-mile, two-lane, elevated track.
Four racquetball courts and one squash court.
Six locker rooms and three single-use, gender-neutral restrooms.

The Wellness Hub which is home to the Health Promotion and Education team.

Outdoor Facilities

There is one natural grass and one synthetic turf multipurpose field on the north campus. These fields are used for intramural and club sport programs, open recreation, special events, and summer camps. 

The South Campus Outdoor Recreation Complex has a 400-meter, eight-lane track, pits for pole vault, high jump, long jump and triple jump, and a throw area for hammer, shot put, and javelin that is home to SLU’s Division I Track and Field programs. A natural grass, multipurpose field used for intramural and club sport programs, open recreation and special events can also be found here.

SLUruba is an outdoor aquatics facility that features two leisure pools, a sun deck, sand volleyball and plenty of green space for open recreation and special events.

Saint Louis University — The St. Louis skyline seen from south campus August 30, 2022.

Programming Highlights

Access and Open Recreation

All full and part-time students have membership and access to all recreation facilities on campus through student fees. Membership is not open to the public, but membership opportunities are extended to SLU affiliates, such as alumni, faculty, staff, retirees and their immediate family.

Although facility rentals are allowed, the department is committed to providing open recreation opportunities for students and members. All facility reservation requests are reviewed internally and scheduled with careful consideration, prioritization and fees. The department processes over 375 facility rental requests annually, in addition to managing reservations for internal programming, club sport and dance organizations.

Students and members have access to group exercise classes, towel service, day-use lockers and equipment check-out at no additional cost.

Aquatics and Safety

Water safety lessons are offered to the SLU community free of charge. This program is designed for individuals with minimal experience in the water but open to anyone. Participants learn skills and concepts that will promote water safety and drowning prevention.
Monthly in-service training is coordinated for 35-plus lifeguards and 20-plus facility supervisors to review and practice emergency response, risk management, policies and procedures.
Private swim lessons for adults and youth, as well as Red Cross First Aid, CPR with AED and Lifeguard certification courses are offered to the SLU community.

Fitness

Group fitness programs are offered throughout the fall and spring semesters at no additional costs. There are over 20 instructional, cardio, strength, mind and body, and specialty classes offered per week including mat Pilates, salsa, restorative yoga, Zumba and more. Private classes for special events are available upon request.
Individual and group personal training sessions are offered for nominal fees. The program offers an initial assessment package and continuation packages.
Monthly small-group education sessions are offered. These sessions are limited by registration and usually take place outside of normal hours of operations. Sessions focus on physical exercise and usually include supplemental education around health-related topics such as mental health, nutrition, supplements and more.

Health Promotion and Education

The Health Promotion and Education team work to improve student well-being through programming in the areas of mental health, sexual assault, and alcohol and other drug use prevention education.
Mental Health and First Aid (MHFA) is offered to the SLU community. This skills-based certification course teaches participants about mental health and substance-use challenges, how to provide initial support, and guide a person to appropriate care. The program was implemented in the 2019-2020 academic year and has since established 11 certified MHFA instructors from across the university who have certified over 620 faculty and staff, and 700 students.
The Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults curriculum is offered to students. This four-week program is offered semesterly and teaches students about mindfulness and how to start incorporating it into their daily lives. The program explores themes such as how to cultivate more awareness, decrease stress and anxiety, ways to relax, and how to release negative thoughts through observing and labeling. 
One Wellness Day per semester is integrated into the university’s academic calendar. These days fall on a weekday and classes are canceled. The SLU community is encouraged to pause and take time to focus on their needs and well-being. A variety of programming, intended to care for the whole person — mind, body and spirit — is offered across campus and coordinated by the Health Promotion and Education team.

Special Events

Semesterly, the Campus Recreation and Wellness team, in collaboration with the Jordan Porco Foundation, hosts Fresh Check Day on campus. This signature event aims to create an approachable and hopeful atmosphere where students are encouraged to engage in dialogue about mental health and suicide prevention. The program helps build a bridge between students and the mental health resources available on campus, in the local community and nationally.

For the past 13 years, Campus Recreation and Wellness has hosted a dance showcase during Fall Welcome that has featured over 13 student organizations who use the Rec Center’s multipurpose rooms for practice throughout the year. This event, which features a wide variety of dance genres and cultural performances, celebrates the diversity of SLU’s campus and the commitment to fostering an inclusive community. The event also highlights a non-traditional form of recreation for our new students and is a great recruitment channel for the student organizations. 
IronSLU is one of the most popular fitness programs offered to students at the start of the spring semester. With new year’s resolutions on everyone’s mind, this program aims to incentivize and encourage cross-training and introduce students to new opportunities for exercising they may not have been exposed to previously. Participants are required to complete the distances of a full ironman triathlon over a five-week period. Distances are self-recorded and submitted weekly and those who successfully complete the challenge are awarded a highly coveted T-shirt. This year, the program was extended by a week and incorporated additional time requirements for mindfulness.

Students play neon mini golf during the Party on Grand on August 19, 2023.

Sport and Youth Programs

Intramurals are offered throughout the academic year in four five-week session. There are two in the spring and two in the fall. The sessions include four-weeks of regular season play and one-week of playoffs, and alternate between indoor and outdoor activities, based on the time of year. The program offers a variety of sports, such as soccer, pickleball, basketball, cricket, flag football and sand volleyball, with recreational and competitive leagues for co-ed and gender-specific teams. 
SLU is home to over 30 sport clubs. With over 900 active student participants, these range from individual to team sports and traditional sports and activities like volleyball, rugby, ice hockey and golf to non-traditional such as wilderness and adventure, equestrian, crew, and ultimate frisbee. Competition, member dues, tryouts, travel and level of involvement all vary from club-to-club and year-to-year. Many of the clubs have partnerships with facilities in and around the St. Louis, Missouri, area for activities that on-campus facilities and amenities are unable to accommodate.
In addition to hosting many special events and sport camps over the summer, the department of Campus Recreation and Wellness administers an eight-week day-camp for youth between the ages of six to 12 years old. The goal of the camp is to stimulate the process of discovery by introducing campers to a variety of recreational activities designed for each age group and skill level. This program creates a special atmosphere in which friendships can be formed and campers can express themselves and grow while creating lasting memories. Recreational activities include sports, swimming, cooking, arts and crafts, games, weekly field trips, team building around each week’s theme, and more.

Fun Facts

In 2017, Health Promotion and Education merged with Campus Recreation into a single administrative unit. The department’s name changed from Campus Recreation to Campus Recreation and Wellness.
In 2021, a new Assistant Vice President for Student Well-Being was created with the Division of Student Development. Three departments within the Division of Student Development, including Campus Recreation and Wellness, the University Counseling Center, and the Student Health Center, moved under the purview and direction of the new position of AVP for Student Well-Being. In addition, a Student Well-Being Task Force was created with stakeholders from across campus. This task force was charged by the provost to assess the well-being ecosystem for students and develop recommendations for advancing a culture of well-being for all students.
In 2022, SLU established a four-year partnership with the JED Foundation to evaluate and strengthen mental health, substance misuse, and suicide prevention programs and systems for students.
In 2024, SLU welcomed Duo Facility Dog Woody to the Billiken family. Woody is a two-year old English Labrador Retriever who spent the first two years of his life training to become a facility dog with Duo Dogs, a national nonprofit that trains and connects dogs with people to cultivate positive change in individuals, families and communities. As the first Duo Facility Dog to ever go to college, Woody will assist with decreasing stress, improving moods and promoting overall well-being through interactions with students, faculty and staff on campus. When Woody is not out and about interacting with the campus community, he’ll likely be found in the Wellness Hub with his primary handler.

Campus Recreation and Wellness recently completed a 12-week renovation project at one of the outdoor recreation fields. During the project, a 12-year-old synthetic turf was replaced with updated branding and lines for soccer, flag football and unified lacrosse. A sand-base was excavated and replaced with a rock-base and an appropriate drainage system. New LED light fixtures were added, and a key-switch light system was replaced with a remote-controlled system. Additional netting was also added throughout the space.

As one of the largest student employers on campus, Campus Recreation and Wellness employs over 130 student employees. In addition, there are currently two professional, full-time staff who previously served as student employees within the department.
Over 400 water bottles were recycled through the department’s “Adopt a Water Bottle” program this year.
Many current and former NBA players have visited the Simon Recreation Center, such as Michael Jordan, Rasheed Wallace, Larry Hughes, Carmelo Anthony, Bradley Beal and Jayson Tatum. In addition, many musicians and artists have performed in the facility, including Nelly, the St. Lunatics, B.o.B, Andy Grammer and Steve Aoki.
During the 2022-23 academic year, a total of 8,821 unique students visited the Simon Recreation Center a total of 354,436 times.