The top of the 39-foot climbing wall at the University of Northern Iowa offers an ideal vantage point to see what campus recreation has become.
Rock music blasts from a stereo system.
The center also houses the School of Health, Physical Education and Leisure Services and includes several classrooms, seminar rooms, and biomechanics and behavior research laboratories for the program. Gone are the drab gymnasiums with just a couple of basketball courts, bleachers, free weights, and no natural light. Northern Iowa is one of a growing number of institutions that are pouring millions of dollars into luxurious recreation centers with an emphasis on health and wellness and trendy amenities that rival those of the most expensive fitness clubs. Wellness and recreation centers have recently opened, or are in the works, at Gettysburg College, Loyola College in Maryland, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Miami, the University of Georgia, and Washington State University. But critics say that colleges are wasting money that would be more wisely spent on new academic programs, library journals, and classroom technology.