CREDIT: JOHN SING
FSU executives along with current students and former president Veronica Barahona revealed the amount that will be pledged towards the College’s Remarkable campaign.

Fanshawe College kicked off its newest campaign dubbed Remarkable, which includes a financial goal of $100 million to fund campus enhancements, research and innovation, as well as scholarships and bursaries.

College president, Peter Devlin detailed the reason behind Remarkable.

“The campaign for Fanshawe College is about building a remarkable future,” he said. “For Fanshawe, for the students of today and tomorrow, and for our region.”

With the launch of Remarkable, it was also announced that the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) pledged $24 million towards the campaign.

FSU president Matt Stewart, was joined by students and former FSU president Veronica Barahona to announce the pledge.

“It's the largest in the history of Fanshawe,” said Stewart. “What's more important than the number is the pledge will support the much-needed expansion of the fitness and wellness facilities here at Fanshawe.”

A portion of auxiliary fees students already pay in their tuition will be put forth towards the hefty pledge and will be paid through the next 25 years, said Stewart.

Currently, an increase in fees is not in the horizon.

“There will be no net increase to student fees and Fanshawe graduates who have contributed to the pledge will receive a discount on a fitness membership at the new facility,” said Stewart.

Stewart revealed that plans to expand the fitness facility have been under way for three years and that the legacy passed through former FSU presidents.

“It is remarkable, but a lot of people have worked behind the scenes to make this happen,” he said.

According to Stewart, the expansion is greatly needed as the London campus hosts over 17,000 students and the facility is in need of an upgrade, which he hopes will in turn positively affect student success.

“Everything is changing these days into a new health and wellness type of thought process,” he said. “I think us moving into this phase; we definitely need it, not only because the facilities at the moment are outdated and severely undersized, but also for the betterment of the students”

In addition, the expansion will affect college programs, which frequently use the current facilities.

“A lot of the [programs] use our gymnasium and our fitness centre for part of their course work,” said Stewart. “There will also be a set [amount] of money that will go towards building a new area for these classes and for these students to be able to go through their program and not impact our gym facilities where intramurals are played.”

Stewart stressed the correlation between health and wellness with student success.

“It's a big topic [and] we've got one of the best systems in place in our accessibility team with our response to issues that arise,” he said. “If we can relax students by letting them work out and be able to taste a bit of wellness, then its' going to destress them and be able to provide better results in the classroom.”

Completion of the updated facility is yet to be determined, however.

“We want to see the ground broken sooner than later,” said Stewart. “It's definitely a facility we're behind the times in and it's something we've been pushing for three years, so we would really like to see that come to fruition within the next couple of years. The quicker we can provide these facilities for students, the better off they're going to be.”

“[The] money is as big number, but it's the health and wellness [portion] that we're most focused on.”