New state-of-the-art training center to help in the care of student-athletes while a new academic center will be added

RINDGE, N.H. (July 21, 2011) – Franklin Pierce University and the Department of Athletics has announced the school will break ground on a new athletic training and academic center this fall. The announcement was made on Thursday morning by University President Dr. James Birge before the school’s faculty and staff in Rindge Hall.

The two-story, 9,000 square foot, $2 million center will provide academic space for expanding the emerging health science program and provide more space in the care and treatment of the University’s student-athletes. The University has received a lead gift of $1.1 million to support the construction of this new facility. This gift is the largest the University has received from a private donor.

“We are deeply grateful for the donor’s generosity in making this leadership gift,” Dr. Birge said. “The gift will be devoted to the construction of this facility.”

“The 4,500 square foot athletic training and rehabilitation center on the first floor increases our capacity to care for athletes and provides expanded space for the athletic training staff to perform their duties,” stated Vice President and Athletics Director Bruce Kirsh. “On behalf of the athletic training staff, coaches and all student-athletes, we are extremely pleased to know that we will have a new state-of-the-art athletic training facility that will serve the entire athletics program in a manner that we have not had in the past.”

The space will include multiple taping stations, training tables for treatment and rehabilitation using ultrasound and e-stim, and a hydrotherapy area with whirlpools. The area will also include three offices to enable athletic training staff to efficiently manage and track the health of athletes without leaving the treatment area. The second floor will provide 4,500 square feet of flexible academic space to prepare students for graduate studies and careers in health profession fields.

“This facility will enable us to broaden our health curriculum and better serve our expanding number of students pursuing study in these fields,” said Paul Kotila, Dean of the College at Rindge. 

There will be two unique learning environments for undergraduate and graduate students: a multipurpose, multimedia smart classroom designed to take advantage of technology in education and maximize student-teacher interaction, and a connecting flexible laboratory classroom equipped with technology and media for today’s health education. Three faculty offices on the second floor are designed to allow for greater collaborative opportunities between teaching faculty from undergraduate and graduate programs. This addition allows for expansion of the University’s Health Science program. The proximity of the training and teaching spaces in the same building will also enable health students to observe applications of their classroom work.

Construction of the new facility to be built adjacent to the University’s existing fieldhouse is set to begin in fall 2011 with the first floor completed and ready for use by the summer of 2012. The second floor will be completed and available for students in the fall of 2012.

The new athletic training center adds to some outstanding athletic facilites on the Rindge campus, including the impressive Pappas and Sodexo Fields located next to Pearly Pond.  Those two facilities were built within the past seven years and provide the baseball, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse programs with some of the finest facilities across any division in the Northeast.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the department’s official site at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the department even further, please visit its YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Facebook page (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics) and Twitter account (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics). For more information on Franklin Pierce University and all of its academic programs, please visit www.franklinpierce.edu(.)