A Commitment to Wellness
Wellness & Recreation Services officially opened the Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center (LRS-SWC) August 1st, 2018. It has been an exciting first year of operations, focused on inspiring CU Denver to a culture of wellness. We want to make wellness matter to every person on our campus. We do that by providing wellness in a different and specific way, unique to the needs of our commuter campus and our community. We truly believe that we provide something for everyone in the way of physical amenities, programs, and services. Our greatest goal is to help students, faculty and staff feel like they belong at CU Denver while fostering healthy habits at the LRS-SWC. We focus daily on creating a welcoming environment memorable experiences..
In our first banner year, we welcomed 170,000 + visits, employed 100+ student staff and 12 professional staff. We held a variety of programming, university events, community events, and staff development opportunities.
Current Gift Partners
Lola & Rob Salazar -- naming of facility
Joanne Posner-Mayer -- Posner Family Kitchen naming
TransAmerica -- Financial Wellness program sponsorship
Support Wellness
The Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center welcomes gifts reduce the financial impact and increase the experiential potential of the facility for students. Gifts can be specific to named spaces, program sponsorships or other creative ideas. Leave your legacy.
If you are interested in giving to Wellness & Recreation Services, please contact:
CU Denver Advancement
Phone: 303-315-3601
Email: advancement@ucdenver.edu
By the Numbers
In our first year we had:
- 170,046 visits in our first year
- 9,028 participants in Group Fitness and GT45 classes
- 6,171 visits for in our Aquatics area and programs.
- 5,062 participated in Outdoor Adventures activities.
- 267 students participated in 15 Sports Clubs
- 204 participated in Intramural Sports.
Thank You to the Salazars
Self-made business success stories who grew up in Denver and attended Denver Public Schools, Lola and Rob Salazar are committed to providing opportunities for the city’s diverse student populations. At the state’s most diverse research university, CU Denver students’ work ethic and determination echo Lola and Rob’s personal story of working hard to achieve their dreams.
In 2017, the Salazar Family Foundation made a $10 million gift to the university that established the Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center as the first-named building on the CU Denver campus. This gift helped ensure that the center was constructed in a way that was true to the original design proposed by the Salazar Student Wellness Center Oversight Committee, which was composed of university stakeholders and student leaders. The gift also allowed the university to establish an endowment to manage the center’s future expenses, with the goal of keeping student fees flat.
“Through our gift and through our story, we hope to be role models for students on the CU Denver campus as people they can relate to achieving success in life. We want the Lola & Rob Salazar Student Wellness Center to inspire young people to make their dreams come true through hard work and an education,” said Lola Salazar, who attended CU Denver for a master’s degree. Rob Salazar added, “We want young people to see that they’re no different from us. If we can do it, it’s achievable.”
Rob and Lola Salazar founded the Salazar Family Foundation in 1999 out of a desire to use their business success to support their fundamental belief that education is critical to an individual’s and to the community’s success. The non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization’s core mission is to encourage Denver-area students to achieve their educational goals. Located in Denver, Colo., the foundation supports organizations that are committed to improving the quality of education and students’ access to it. Learn more at http://www.salazarfamilyfoundation.org/.
