Mission Statement: The mission of the Rice Recreation is to encourage healthy living across the campus community by championing all facets of holistic well-being.

Rice Recreational Services’ vision is to create a campus community that is healthy, balanced, and thriving while incorporating values such as responsibility, integrity, community, excellence, resourcefulness, empowerment, and creativity.

Elizabeth Slator, Associate Director of Programs, states that the Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center “opened doors as an award winning, LEED certified facility outfitted with top-of-the-line fitness equipment, technology and site-specific artwork. In addition, to more than 9,000 square feet of dedicated space for cardio and weight equipment. Our Rec Center has two gyms lined for a variety of sports, a multi-use athletic court coated in synthetic rubberized flooring, four multipurpose rooms with wood-sprung flooring (one of which is set up with stage lighting and a marley floor to accommodate dance practice and performance), and an outdoor rental center. Outside of our building is a gorgeous oasis-like outdoor natatorium with two pools surrounded by lounge chairs and palm trees, six intramural fields (two are lighted), an outdoor training park, two outdoor basketball courts, and a comprehensive tennis center with fourteen courts.  These state-of-the-art facilities, combined with high-quality, diverse programs and services, make the Gibbs Recreation Center one of the most dynamic and well-utilized spaces on campus”.

Rice Recreation programming features campus recreation programs that include Intramural and Club Sports program. Programs include up to 30 types of both traditional and non-traditional sports and activities from flag-football and soccer to bhangra and ballroom dance. In addition, Rice Recreation has an outdoor adventure program that runs single and multi-day trips with a variety of outdoor activities (e.g. surfing, backpacking, rock climbing, and geocaching). Other programming includes group fitness, mind/body classes, personal training, a Learn to Swim program, and summer day camps.

Slator states that Rice Recreation’s non-traditional programs “set us apart from other campus recreation departments across the country. These include our (Re)Discover Your Wild Side: Wellness Adventure and (Re)Discover Your Wild Side Mindfulness Retreat Programs, which are designed to help working professionals invite more adventure, play, and peace” into everyday lives. In addition, mindfulness classes and workshops include an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course and 4-part workshop focused on mindful well-being that focus on nutrition, wellness coaching, massage services, and specialty programs from Pilates for lower-back pain to line dancing. After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, Rice Recreation created and sustained a program called traveling ReCentering Services. This program provides departments across Rice campus a variety of wellness classes focused on stress relief and recovery. Services provided are free and take place within buildings of housed departments.

Specialty Events:

  • No Man’s Land Film Festival- virtual and in-person film festival featuring vignettes of the accomplishments of female “outdoor” athletes
  • Adventure Quest- a 5 person relay designed to test strength, endurance and intellect.
  • Cardboard Regatta- competition where students design/build boats made of cardboard and attempt to race them against other teams in the pool.
  • Dive-In Movie Nights
  • Experiential Leadership Initiative- collaboration between the wellness/outdoor programs at the recreation center and the Doerr Leadership Institute to utilize the innate challenges of wild spaces to provide direct experiences for students to learn valuable leadership, emotional intelligence and self-regulatory skills.

Slator states that her favorite part about being a Region IV institutional member is the ability to “collaborate with the other institutional members in our region – applying to both attitude and proximity. Whether it’s getting input about new programming or learning new ways to do old things, everyone in our region is willing to help out no matter what, no questions asked”.

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