A view of the current Ankeny YMCA, located at Northview Middle School.
DMACC and the YMCA will no longer be partnering for the student center redesign coming late 2016 or early 2017.
(Previously: YMCA construction to displace students)
The partnership was to give free YMCA membership to DMACC students, faculty, and staff.
The redesign, which will bring new recreational and exercise facilities in addition to a new food court, will still continue.
According to President Rob Denson, the “Y” is a great organization and they were in negotiations for a year, but they just could not make the numbers work.
“We needed something that would break even, that DMACC did not have to put more money in and we were hoping to get some revenue back from it, and that did not just look like it was going to be possible, so we parted friends,” he said.
However, according to President Denson, there is no cause for alarm. The Building 5 redesign will remain almost the same except for a few minor changes.
“We are going to change a room called the ‘child watch area’ for children. We are probably going to turn that into a room for our physical therapy assistant program, so our students can work with the therapist that are there for the therapy pool,” he said.
Denson also added that DMACC is partnering with Ankeny schools.
On the bright side, as Denson puts it, the “Y” would have brought many non-students to campus, and so it would have been more crowded for students.
The absence of the Y, Denson believes, will be a better student experience.
Denson also added that DMACC and YMCA have been good friends and would probably partner in the future.
Check back for additional updates.
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