CMU pushes on with new facilities for students
Walking around the Colorado Mesa University campus come fall, students, faculty and staff will undoubtedly see some changes, but not all of them will be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before talk of a contagious virus, stay-at-home orders and face masks, multiple construction projects were underway. A healthy level of persistence, precaution and hard work pushed projects forward in even the most challenging of times.
A month from now, the anticipated Aspen Apartments will sit among eleven other student housing options. The apartments sit on the west side of campus near the Hotel Maverick and will house 120 second-year or higher students. It took about a year to build and in October 2019, CMU students voted on the name.
In addition to the Aspen Apartments, a new track and field facility and pump track were also projects that broke ground in the fall of 2019. The CMU track and field team was one of the few athletics programs not able to practice on campus. The new pump track was sourced out of Ohio by the same company that built the track in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. It’s an all-weather, symmetrical, dual lane, head-to-head competition track that is good for all levels. CMU Co-Athletic Director Bryan Rooks said the growth of the university is a benefit for everyone, and the Director of Club Sports Reese Keegans agrees.
“I was out there just yesterday and I saw a mother on her cruiser riding next to her kids on training wheels and in the other lane were college-aged kids,” said Keegans.
The pump track is to be shared, so while CMU plans to offer camps to the community and host competitions, it’s also a strategic move that benefits the CMU cycling program.
“The pump track is another tool in our toolbox for our student-athletes who are competing at collegiate events. It’s a hands-on, close-in proximity training facility for our cycling team, specifically for our mountain bike and BMX disciplines,” said Keegans.
While campus is constantly evolving, the growth is not without purpose. Throughout the years, students have communicated the need for a campus sanctuary. With gifts from the community, alumni and university supporters, the CMU Foundation is helping bring to campus a nondenominational, interfaith facility that will allow students to reflect, contemplate and celebrate life.
“It’s an important and meaningful project,” said fundraising volunteer Craig Springer. “It can mean so many different things to different people. It can function how anyone chooses to use it.”
The Center for Reflection is the latest exciting project to transform campus and shows CMU is a leading university when it comes to serving and representing the diverse needs and values of students.
So while things might look different on campus this fall, the new facilities are a reminder that CMU shows no signs of slowing down.