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We know that our university community has a strong connection to the Fun Zone, and we are mindful of the impacts the closure is having on staff, students and faculty. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and for not communicating the closure sooner.

The decision to close the Fun Zone was not taken lightly. However, important considerations were taken in to account:

•    The fieldhouse floor renovation provids an opportunity for us to meet the increased demand for court space for Dalhousie students required for intramural programming, club sports, etc.
•    This also allows us to meet the demands for more casual, drop-in recreational time for our community members and students.
•    To complete this project, everything must be removed from the fieldhouse, including the Fun Zone as the layout will be reconfigured. We investigated alternate locations to move the existing Fun Zone structure within Dalplex, however it would require extensive and costly reconfiguration which proved to be cost-prohibitive.

We are committed to supporting both our student users and broader community needs at Dalplex and appreciate that a children’s play area is important to many Dalplex users. Once the new fitness centre is open and the equipment in the current cardio room has been relocated, the room will be temporarily repurposed as an unsupervised soft-play children’s area.

When the new fitness centre is open, we will explore a range of options for a children’s soft-play area in Dalplex. We are committed to getting member/student feedback before moving forward on final plans for the space, as well as feedback on additional play equipment/programming for the pool, fieldhouse or Studley Gym.

Thank you again for your patience during this transition period, as we continue to strive for improvements to Dalhousie’s athletic and recreation facilities. The new Dalplex fitness centre is weeks away from opening and we are very excited to share more details with our members shortly, including when we expect to be able to open our doors!

Sincerely,
Kathie Wheadon
Director, Facilities & Business Services
Department of Athletics & Recreation