New Recovery Room promotes wellness for UWRF employees

UW-River Falls Campus Recreation opened its new Recovery Room at the Falcon Center on Jan. 27 as part of a focus on wellness for the university’s faculty. The room includes two massage chairs, a 55-inch smart TV, and a galaxy projector that casts lights onto the ceiling.

Currently, the Recovery Room is only available for UWRF employees, who can book 60-minute appointments on the Falcon Center website. Alex Pendar, the Recreation Program Manager for Campus Recreation, said the response from faculty has been positive. “Some professors have an appointment [almost] every week. They're demonstrating the benefits of taking advantage of the well-being opportunities that our campus has.”

In the Feb. 13 edition of Falcon Today, Julian Emerson wrote of one employee who told Falcon Center staff, “Thanks so much for spreading the joy that is a full-body massage chair with the rest of campus! I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch break today.” In addition, A Falcon Center membership is not required to use the Recovery Room. “We’ve seen a lot of employees come in who don't typically utilize the Falcon Center,” Pendar said.

Pendar said that, while students cannot use the room yet, “Our future hope is to be able to expand it to integrate student usage and community member usage.” Currently, the room, as well as the appointment booking system, are being tested, and new features, such as a meditation app for the TV, are being considered. She also said that students will “potentially” be able to use the space in the fall of 2025, but that this is not a definitive date.

The total cost of the Recovery Room was $5,000, which was provided by a 2024 Employee Trust Fund Wellness Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, which is intended to support wellness initiatives for employees. 

The Recovery Room joins the Falcon Center’s wellness area, which is located in its Fitness Center and includes massage guns and compression boots for recovery use. Students and community members are able to use this space.

Pendar said that, after Campus Recreation received the $5,000, they had only four weeks to decide what to buy for the Recovery Room. “We had talked about having massage chairs for a couple of years,” she said. “We wanted to… change it from the feel of an office to [a place] that you can recover in, which is why we went with the lights and the TV.” 

The Recovery Room and the wellness area are part of a shift in campus recreation departments across the country. Pendar said that, more and more, universities are focusing not only on physical well-being, but other areas of wellness also. “[Universities] are taking on more recovery, mental well-being, [and] spiritual well-being, these other pillars of wellness.” According to Pendar, students increasingly value these other, “holistic” areas of wellness. 

The intention is for the Falcon Center to be a “one-stop shop” for all areas of wellness.

Campus Recreation is also looking to collaborate with other wellness-focused departments across campus, such as Student Health & Counseling.

In addition, they hope to add a fitness and wellness coordinator to their staff. UWRF’s wellness efforts, Pendar said, are currently “housed in all of these little pockets like Student Health & Counseling, ResLife, [and] Student Involvement…. How do we make sure that students know where to find all of these well-being opportunities?”

A coordinator would help with awareness, and could help oversee new initiatives.

The Falcon Center has already received the Employee Trust Wellness Grant for 2025. Pendar said they haven’t determined what they will use the money for, but will likely continue to develop the Recovery Room and wellness area. “The goal is to continue to make [the wellness area] a space where students can go to recover [and] feel more well,” she said.

Campus Recreation will be looking into the possibilities this summer. The department wants students to share what wellness initiatives they would like to see on campus.

“We’re always open to those ideas,” Pendar said.