Activities and Recreation Center
According to Robyn Deterding, Director of campus recreation, the main goal of campus recreation is to provide something for everyone-whether it is a sport, a program, a job, a place to study etc. Our main focus is on students first, faculty/staff next then their spouses, significant other and families. Last focus is on community. We have a strategic plan that focuses specifically on six areas: student and staff development, sustainability, wellness, fiscal responsibility, collaborative efforts, and diversity.
The agency is funded primarily through student fees and any income we can generate. Other incomes can include private memberships for those who are not students i.e. residents of Champaign and Urbana. The agency also receives funding through the extra classes that the facility provides such as yoga, zumba, and cardio classes. They receive very little state funding.
This agency serves all students and faculty in the University of Illinois community. It also serves the residents of the Champaign and Urbana areas. It can extend outside the local area to those willing to pay non resident and membership fees.
The Activities and Recreation Center is multi-faceted. It has a variety of classes that are free for every student the first couple weeks of each semester. The ARC also has Wellness Wednesdays in the basement at the Wellness Center. At this center they provide workshops about stress, nutrition, etc. There are also cooking classes, aerobic classes, and team practices at the ARC. The 35-foot rock wall located in the ARC offers clinics for beginners and experienced climbers. These are just of the many key programs that the ARC offers students and faculty.
The ARC has a full-time staff of close to 75 people. Their jobs focus on business operations, field maintenance/operation, aquatics, intramurals, sport clubs, risk management, human resources, wellness, strength and conditioning, ice arena, reservation, staff development, adventure recreation, and member services. The ice arena is part of campus recreation but is not located at the ARC. They have close to 700 student employees who also assist in the areas listed above. The competencies required for any of these positions are friendly, responsible, hard working, and respectable staff. All employees work as a unit and rely on each other to provide sustainable recreation services.
The ARC has many strengths such as that they are very passionate about what they do and work hard to do it well. They serve over 88% of the student population. They are also very flexible in operation so they could be serving the students with all they need while providing the Provost Office space for a reception and RSO hosting a late night dance elsewhere. They are much like a chameleon in their variety of services. However there are some weaknesses in the ARC. Obviously the economy is a weakness for many agencies right now and they are waiting to see if that affects them. Since they depend on student enrollment, for a portion of their budget, then they must always be able to adjust without it affecting their mission. Sometimes a challenge but if they are creative, then it is more of a behind the scenes weakness than visible.
The ARC absolutely fulfills its purpose as a recreation service. With their 6 strategic foci, this year they already noted 24 pages of accomplishments. In terms of student users, they are seeing more participations than they have ever experienced in the last 40 years of existence.
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