Our newly renovated Indoor Athletic Complex will vacate and fill in the current pool located in the Wayne State College Natatorium and begin the process of repurposing the facility with a multiuse, artificial turf surface, protective netting system, and additional office space to accommodate the growing student intramural athletic program and fulfill a need of indoor training space for our varsity sports programs.

Along with the increase in use of the facility by the general student population, there has been an increase in use by athletics, club sports, intramural, organizations and general student use. This has led to substantial increase in space and time needed in the Recreation Center and other venues (Rice Auditorium, Rice Auditorium stage, Natatorium balcony). Due to Title IX, additional Intercollegiate Athletic program(s) have been implemented at WSC.  WSC is also exploring establishing additional formalized club sports as a means to serve students and sustain enrollment goals.  These initiatives will require additional athletic and recreational space. With only one indoor multiuse facility available, it is imperative WSC is able to increase multi-use, indoor facility space in order to provide safe activity areas based on expected pattern of growth.  WSC’s current indoor athletic and recreation spaces have become inadequate based on current use. 

Even when the pool was functioning properly the overall use by WSC (faculty, staff, students) and the Wayne community was fairly limited when compared to other indoor athletic/recreation space. With no definite solution available to fix the pool, WSC has determined to identify and commit resources to renovate the Natatorium to make its use more consistent and versatile.

WSC currently has inter-local agreements with the City of Wayne and Wayne Community Schools for use of campus facilities. Currently there is not an indoor facility with a significant artificial playing surface in the greater Wayne area. Even with current inter-local agreements in place, these entities experience difficulties gaining access to athletic and recreational facilities due to current WSC use and demand as highlighted above. This type of facility will allow for enhanced program development and partnership at the College, City and Interscholastic level. An additional multi-use indoor athletic and recreation space is needed to accommodate WSC’s current internal programming, Title IX equity planning, adequately service external partnership needs, and to provide an additional recruiting tool for prospective students as an overall student life enhancement.