NDSU Wallman Wellness Center Needs Assessment

Hailey Askeland
Olivia Scott
Timothy Roesch
North Dakota State University
ENGL 459
December 11, 2014

Current Situation:
The North Dakota State University Wallman Wellness Center is a place where the
NDSU community can go to unwind, de-stress, be active and come together to live and
encourage others to live a healthy and well lifestyle. Their mission statement is as
follows: The Wellness Center is dedicated to developing and promoting opportunities for
individuals of the University Community to incorporate the seven dimensions of
wellness into their lifestyle (NDSU, 2014).
Wellness is defined as, an active, lifelong process of becoming aware of choices and
making decisions toward a more balanced and fulfilling life. The foundations of
wellness, and the Wellness Center is built upon seven dimensions of wellness for a
quality way of living: Emotional, Environmental, Spiritual, Physical, Social, Occupational
and Intellectual (NDSU, 2014).
The Wallman Wellness Center is a state-of the-art facility that is dedicated to the wellbeing of the NDSU community. The fitness and recreational programs offered include:
intramural sports, group exercise classes, personal training, open recreation, 35-foot
climbing wall, and indoor cycling. The facility spaces provided to host many of these
programs include: Basketball courts: 1, 2 & 3 (which are also interchangeable volleyball
and badminton courts), cardio area, 35-foot climbing wall, free-weights center, multipurpose activity court (MAC gym), studio B (group exercise), martial arts studio, cycling
studio, personal training studio, walking and running tracks, racquetball courts 1, 2, 3 &
4 (NDSU, 2014).
The Wellness Center is funded by a $94.40 wellness fee, included in tuition each
semester for full time students (pro-rated for part-time students).The fee provides, but is
not limited to funding for operational and personnel, which includes, debt reduction,
salaries, benefits, and programs and services that promote student health and wellness.
In the Spring of 2013 an additional fee of $29.20 (each semester) was voted in by
students in order to fund the construction of an aquatic center, as an addition to the
Wellness Center. The operational hours of the Wellness Center include: Monday-Friday:
5:30 am to Midnight, Saturday: 8 am to Midnight and Sunday 11 am to Midnight (NDSU,
2014).
Purpose:
The purpose of assessing the NDSU Wallman Wellness Center is we, as students, are
curious and concerned about the overall use of the Wellness Center, as well as
determining what the Wellness Center has to offer the NDSU community. Our main
focus was to gain knowledge of which types of students use the Wellness Center, what
they use, and what could be done to improve or increase the use of a facility that all
students pay for, in order to tailor it to the NDSU communitys desires and needs.
Data/Analysis:
To gather our data, we collected information from Jeff Dertinger, the Membership and
Communications Coordinator of the NDSU Wallman Wellness Center. The information

consists of overall Fitness Numbers for the 2013-2014 school year, as well as Student
Demographics (male vs. female and freshmen vs. sophomores etc.):

Fitness Numbers
As you can see from the above graph the numbers for group exercise have fallen from
8,055 in the Fall of 2013 to 6,590 for the Spring semester of 2014 for a total
participation of 14,645. The number of personal training sessions has increased from
1,048 for Fall 2013 to 1,243 for Spring 2014 for a total participation of 2,291. Also, the
number of participants in Bison Extreme/ Boot Camp have increased from 35 for Fall
2013 to 113 for Spring 2014 for a total participation of 148. There are a variety of
reasons these numbers have fluctuated. More data and information is needed to do an
in-depth analysis of this data.

Student Demographics

As you can see the bar graph above shows basic student membership demographics
arranged on the far left by gender during the 2013-2014 school year and on the right
arranged by year of study the student attending was in. For the school year 2013-2014,
according to the current data, a total of 4,772 females were or became members. The
graph also shows that according to data collected 6,030 males were members. This is a
difference of 79% of females attending compared to males. Some probable reasons for
this are discussed in the Recommendations section. This graph also shows that there
were 1,612 first year students, 2,887 second year students, 2,139 third year students,
2,777 fourth year students and 1,364 Professional and Graduate students as members
for the 2013-2014 school year.
Membership Growth
Over the past year membership growth has increased 5.6% in the Wallman Wellness
Center. As NDSU grows as an institution there is an expectation that the facilities will
experience a similar increase in size.

Intramural Sports
Intramural sports are a way for students to play different athletic sports on organized
teams for friendly competition. In 2013 and 2014 2,334 men participated in intramurals,
while 1,035 women participated. Half as many women participate in intramural sports
this may be due to the fact that there are more intramural sports for men than women.
There is a push now to get more women involved in these recreational activities, such

as tailoring rules to favor females in coed sports. This has been a recent change, so the
effects of such actions will be seen in the future.
Rock Climbing Certification
Also located in the Wellness Center is a rock climbing wall. Currently 1,025 students
have their Climbing Wall Certification and are able to participate in this area of the
Wellness Center. Considering NDSU has more than 14,000 students this number is not
very large. This opportunity for students is underutilized and should be taken advantage
of.
Student Visits

The above graph shows student visits for the 2013-2014 school year. As you can see
on the left it shows that 112,281 females visited the Wellness Center as compared to
207,785 visits by males. There were almost twice as many visits made by male students
as female students. This interesting because the total number of students attending
NDSU is much equal in gender break down than would account for this differentiality.
This graph also shows that there were 45,083 visits made by first year students, 95,026
visits by second year students, 64,741 visits by third year students, 80,783 fourth year
students and 34,172 Professional and Graduate student visits for the 2013-2014 school
year. Obviously, a greatest number, 95,026, of second year students made visits to the
Wellness Center than any other school year, this could be any number of reasons
possibly because they have become comfortable enough with campus to be able to
arrange their schedules appropriately to be able to make visits in greater numbers. But

as you can see there was a falloff in number of visits after the second year which shows
there is another reason visits are going down.
Needs:
Space/increase in capacity
Recruitment tactics
Media/Marketing
Adequate parking
Increased hours
Less intimidating workout areas
More semester duration lockers
Recommendations:
Adding additional space: This is something we feel is necessary in order to
relieve some of the facility space of overpopulation and to meet the needs of
students who are not attracted to what the Center currently offers. For example,
the free-weight center is often times filled to capacity, usually with male students.
It is great that this area is so popular, however it can seem unwelcoming to that
of the female community. If the Wellness Center was able to create a larger or
additional free-weight center, this may alleviate the overpopulation tension. The
aquatic center is in the works at this very moment, a facility that has been heavily
requested. We are pleased that the Wellness Center is taking this project on, to
meet the NDSU communities requests. This shows that they are open and willing
to work with the community and what they need and want, which if enough
people request, we hope an addition to the free-weight center is given some
thought.

Informing those who use the center: More in depth information needs to be
disbursed to the student body so that students know exactly what the Wellness
Center offers. Information about using the racquetball courts, information on how
to use specific weight machines as well as how join intramural sports and other
activities that the Wellness Center provides that is not given much input on their
website. This information would be really beneficial to all students, especially for
first year and transfer students. If proper information was decimated the
likelihood of increased membership numbers would be greater.

Extending hours: The Wellness Center is currently open on weekdays from 5:30
am to Midnight. Many people use the early morning and late at night to get their
physical activity in due to their busy day. We feel that if the Wellness Center were
to open just one hour earlier, at 4:30 am and closed one hour later at 1:00 am on
weekdays that the traffic might increase and be more convenient to all types of
people within the NDSU community.

Benefits/Conclusion:
By implementing some of these changes the Wallman Wellness Center may receive
more traffic from the very students who pay to keep it in business. Adding additional

space would allow for more machines and less lines for areas such as the free-weights.
People tend to become frustrated if they are unable to find a machine to work out on
and may develop a negative stigma towards the Center due to this. Having space gives
users a better, more open feeling, making them more comfortable and at ease.
Another area that we think would be beneficial to the Wellness Center would be to have
better recruitment tactics. Many students dont utilize the area because they are
unaware of all of the opportunities offered. The Wellness Center has little advertising
and information around campus to make students more conscious of what is available
to them. Through promotion, students will be more educated and also more likely to
contribute to the number of people who use the Center.
Also extending the hours of the Wellness Center could open up working out to a group
of people who have little time during the day. This will promote more attraction to the
facility and will ultimately increase their numbers. Availability tends to be an issue for
people. If they feel that the hours are not conducive to their schedule they will opt out of
working out, extending the hours is a way to reduce that mentality.
Thus, the Wallman Wellness Center is a great resource available to all NDSU students.
There are some needs that should be met to ensure an even more successful facility.
Through thorough assessment we found that creating more space for equipment,
promoting what the Wellness Center has to offer, as well as extending the hours could
help strengthen their growth. As NDSU evolves and expands so should the facilities
within, and the Wallman Wellness Center is just one of these advancing resources.
References:
(Dertinger. J. D., personal communication. December 2, 2014).
NDSU Wellness Center. (2014). Retrieved from
http://www.ndsu.edu/wellness/

Rubric/Evaluation Criteria:
Rhetorical Situation: 80 points possible
Develops a Logic that shows relation of each section to the next
Fills generic slots (situation, purpose, data/analysis, needs, recommendations,
benefits/conclusion)
Incorporates relevant information that reflects careful research on the topic
___/80
Visual choices: 50 points possible
Organization (Consistent sections and headings)
Consistent design choices are made throughout the document
Charts and graphs are used when appropriate
Materials and design reflect an understanding of professional presentation
___/50 points
Grammar/Mechanics and usage 20 points possible
Consistent point of view
Lists in parallel form, active verbs are used
professional language is used so document sounds clear and professional
Shows careful attention to editing and proofreading
___/20 points
___/150 points possible