The Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Department of Athletics, will be seeing some major changes in the coming years as the highly anticipated, five phase All Well (Active Living, Learning, and Wellness) Center develops. Phase one of the All Well project was the construction of the sixteen million dollar Ice Arena. Phase two through four includes renovation of the all athletic fields and the addition of three new buildings, one of which will replace the current building and will separate some its functions. One of the new buildings will facilitate more community services activities and house a new swimming and diving area. Another building will allow for the creation of an expanded indoor track. It will allow Plymouth State to add cross country, as well as indoor and outdoor track. A fourth building will serve primarily as an academic building.
While the concept of the All Well Center has been around for a number of years, administration commissioned a team to begin seriously developing a plan for the All Well Center within the last 24 to 36 months.
According to Jim Hundrieser, Plymouth State’s Vice President of Student Affairs, administration is currently in the process of meeting with architects to develop the construction plans of the three buildings as well as the renovation of the athletic fields. The buildings must be finalized from an architectural standpoint and be properly designed to withstand flooding. Administration is also working to make the project as cost efficient as possible. If everything goes as planned, the next step in the completion of the All Well Center is the renovation the athletic fields.
In addition to finalizing the construction plans for the All Well Center, Plymouth State University must come up with the money to fund the project. The All Well Center costs over 100 million dollars; PSU is requesting about 80 million from the state of New Hampshire. The rest of the money needs to be generated through fundraising. According to Hundrieser, “The timeline for the All Well Center is all based off vote, if the legislature votes this down, we will be disappointed.” If the funding for the All Well Center is rejected by the state of New Hampshire, the university will need to come up with the entire 100 million dollars, while not impossible, Hundrieser referred to it as, “The most aggressive fund raising campaign we’ve undertaken, and the most aggressive fund raising many institutions across the nation will have ever undertaken.”
Many students are uninformed or misinformed about the status of the All Well Center. Administration has not created much hype about the project due to the number of variables involved at this point. In regards to the student body’s response Hundrieser said, “I think we’ve been cautious purposely to not raise expectations around campus given that there are so many variables that need to converge to make this happen.” However, after the funding goes through legislature, administration hopes that the project will attract more attention from students.
In the past year, Plymouth State University has seen both funding cuts from the state as well as decreased student enrollment. In a time of difficult financial conditions, Hundrieser believes that pursuing the All Well Center should still be a priority. He stated, “I see this as something that will help transform one of our largest majors and increase the quality, the depth, and the breadth of the student experience… I see this as the last large scale capital project that we have.”
Members of the community may be excited for the All Well Center as well. The project opens up more community space, more community partnerships, more space for healthy living facilities, and more athletic training services. A member of the Holderness Select Board is serving on the All Well Center committee. In the current plans there are no property issues, the All Well Center will be built on Plymouth State University property. The project will maximize the use of the property in Holderness.
The goal of the All Well center is to benefit the Plymouth State University community as a whole. It provides new academic space for students within the Health and Human Services Department, provides better facilities for athletes, and provides more wellness services for the student body as a whole. Furthermore, by moving the Health and Human Services Department, more academic space is available at the D&M building, providing more space for other departments and potentially expanding the selection of majors at PSU. Administration is very excited about the project, in regards to conceptual plan for the All Well Center, Hundrieser said, “Every time I read through this, I just think, when, when, when?”