SUNY-ESF students will now be able to take advantage of resources and amenities offered at the Barnes Center at The Arch, which just opened in August after more than a year of renovations.

The Arch borders the ESF campus, giving students a variety of recreational activities close to their campus. Anne Lombard, the college’s vice provost and dean for student affairs, said the project will be “tremendously positive” for the ESF student experience. It has the potential to be a popular resource for students to spend their time outside of academics because ESF doesn’t have any recreational facilities of its own, she said.

“There are a lot of new amenities that ESF students can take advantage of,” said Peter Huber, acting president of ESF Undergraduate Student Association.

ESF students will have access to almost all the new amenities offered by The Arch. Some of these include a rock-climbing wall, a multi-level gym, an indoor track and a new pool. There will also be an e-sports gaming room open daily to students that includes a virtual reality unit, 36 personal computer gaming stations and 6 console stations for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo.

“With construction ending, the new facility will provide a good way for students to enhance their experience at ESF,” Huber said.

The Arch’s opening comes after SU and ESF renewed their partnership agreement in late August to allow both student populations to participate in academic and student life activities between the two universities.

Still, several students said they felt The Arch wasn’t advertised well to the ESF student body. SU touted the new facility on its website, in construction updates and news releases, but for some ESF students, it went unnoticed.

Lizzie Waterhouse, a senior at ESF and member of the Undergraduate Student Association, said that with more communication between the two schools, more students would know about the facility on the ESF campus.

“SU services are really poorly advertised at ESF so it’s hard to know exactly what we’re allowed to use,” Waterhouse said.

The only amenities that will not be available to ESF students are the health and counseling services that are offered by SU. However, similar services are already offered to students attending ESF through the college’s student affairs offices.

Published on September 10, 2019 at 11:06 pm

Contact Josh: jjchandr@syr.edu