2021 Rutgers Making a Champion Guide

Pandemic Response The COVID-19 pandemic that hit the United States in 2020 created unprecedented disruption to all aspects of our lives. Like everywhere around the country (and the world), Rutgers University had to act quickly and thoughtfully to safeguard its community. The APC played an active role in helping Rutgers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the integrated health clinic and the indoor/outdoor spaces found in various parts of the building. With regard to the health clinic, the APC was able to function as a center for student-athlete testing at the university. Estimating that they have been able to do more COVID-19 testing than any other school in the conference, Athletic Director Hobbs said he “[doesn’t] know how we’d be able to do what we [did] during COVID without the APC. It’s where most of our tests are processed. Spacing [for social distancing] is easy. It’s been a very workable building during COVID.” While other organizations around the country had trouble operating, the APC was able to offer its typical clinical services while also adding on COVID-19 testing capabilities. Beyond the healthcare infrastructure in place, the APC was also well served by the numerous spaces that had originally been designed to take advantage of the region’s warmer seasons. The outdoor terrace, for example, played a significant role in hosting recruits and also provided a venue for socially distanced team meetings. For Men’s Basketball, Coach Pikiell explained, “We have all our meetings outdoors on the terrace… we watch film outdoors on the terrace... People come here and the outdoor [space] gives them a wow factor.” Likewise, the Strength and Conditioning Room’s ability to completely open its walls to the outdoors enabled student- athletes to train with equipment that otherwise would have been tricky to access. Deputy Director Baumgartner exults that “What we did with those [sliding glass] doors… It was brilliant before, but with COVID, it’s even more brilliant.” Even spaces that didn’t open to the outside benefited from robust ventilation systems that provided sufficient hourly air exchanges to enable staff to continue working in the building relatively safely, with only modest adjustments in behavior. The building’s designed-in flexibility, indoor/outdoor venues, and innovative inclusion of a clinic normally would set the APC apart from similar collegiate facilities—but the COVID-19 pandemic has shown just how high-performing this building is, and what an asset it is to the Rutgers athletics program and the university, as a whole. 36 RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center Perkins Eastman