Joel Swedlund is well known at Abilene Christian University as the friendly face behind the operations of the McGlothlin Campus Center. But on June 1, Swedlund will leave his job as Campus Center manager and become director of facility operations for the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, joining Dr. Kerri Hart and an as-yet unnamed executive director as the three principal administrators of the new facility.
What will your new role entail?
Primarily I will be responsible for hiring, training and mentoring student employees in the new wellness center.
I will also be engaged in the marketing of the center’s functions and events to our students. I will also work closely with [ACU’s cleaning service] WFF and Physical Resources to maintain the clean and safe environment we desire for our students, and I’ll be the designated emergency manager for the facility. I’ll be wearing a lot of hats, but those are some of the things that will keep me busy.
What are you doing now to prepare for the opening in the fall?
Right now we are developing policies and procedures for the facility, as well as working with various vendors to ensure the center is 100 percent ready for use on the day we open the doors to our students.
How will your job interact with Dr. Kerri Hart’s and the new executive director’s?
It will be a collaborative effort — bringing together folks from different divisions and departments across campus.
I, along with Kerri, will report directly to the executive director. While we will each have specific roles and specific areas to oversee, operating the new facility will require a team effort. Kerri and I have been working on many projects in preparation for the opening, and we are very excited about having the executive director in his or her new role soon!
What are the biggest challenges you face in taking a job like this? The biggest opportunities?
The biggest challenge will be having everything and everyone in place for the opening of the center. We want this to be a premier facility from Day 1, and a great number of things need to be accomplished in order for that to happen.
As for opportunities, they are almost unlimited. First and foremost, we want to serve our student body body in all aspects of their life journey. We want students to have a deep understanding of wellness. This center will not just be another gym. It will be a space that students use to become the healthiest version of themselves that God wants them to be — heart, soul, strength and mind. That’s why the university’s leadership intentionally housed the medical clinic, the counseling center and the physical workout areas under the same roof.
How will students interact with you in the new center? In other words, when would a student approach you for something?
A student can approach me about anything and everything. I want to be there as a resource for our student employees and student body. When students have questions, concerns or new ideas about how the center could be better utilized, I want to be there to give answers and solutions and to think through new possibilities with them. The students are my No. 1 priority, and I want that to be obvious in all that I do.
When you talk about having everything in place, what specifically does that entail?
We have to complete our policies and procedures manual and hire student employees, and be in communication with them because we’re going to have to hire and train them before the facility opens and be in contact with them about policies and procedures as they change.
There are details as small as ordering towels. We’ve already ordered the workout equipment, but we also have to order classroom and office furnitureand equipment, and we need to coordinate moving it in so they don’t all show up on the same day. But we also need to get them moved in fast enough for the building to open on time.
We have to coordinate with campus tours on what to show and what should or shouldn’t be said on the tours. We have to plan a grand opening. We have to get students into the card-reader system. We have to train student workers on software that will be used in the center. After we get the certificate of occupancy, we have to do things like fill up the pools and make sure the chemicals are balanced.
It’s not going to feel like summer! That’s one of the reasons we’re excited to have the new executive director take over — to provide some leadership but also to provide another body to share the load.