The HealthEU center has shifted its opening to fall of 2026 due to weather causing delays in construction. The center is being built on Elon University’s Innovation Quad, and was initially set to open in summer of 2026 when the project was announced in the spring of 2024.
David Haught, senior director for planning, design and construction management at Elon, said on-site work has slowed due to weather, but the team is constantly working on the project even when the physical construction is stopped.
“We've had some significant wet weather this summer, so we're constantly adjusting the activities to compensate for weather delays,” Haught said. “We were planning to do a certain activity on this day but now we've got so many inches of rain, so we modify the stacking of activities so that we can continue with some while we can't continue with others.”
To people walking by the HealthEU center may look like a few unfinished walls, but Haught said this look is to be expected for a building so early in construction. The construction area has blocked walking paths between Haggard and Innovation Drive, but Haught said as construction progresses these paths will be reopened. Although construction has been delayed, Haught said the team is hoping to complete most underground work before move-in day for the class of 2029, Aug. 22, 2025.
“It may not look like there's a lot of progress, but by the time move-in day happens we hope to have Innovation Drive reconnected to Haggard,” Haught said. “It might not be totally completed, but for students to get across campus and around the construction, that's one aspect that you'll see being developed here rapidly between now and move-in day.”
Once built, the HealthEU center will be the second largest building on campus at 135,000 square feet, behind the Schar Center at 160,000 square feet. Haught said delays are not uncommon when preparing a construction site of this size, especially when building in an open environment.
According to Anu Räisänen, director of HealthEU Initiatives, the HealthEU center is being constructed with all dimensions of HealthEU in mind. Along with physical and community well-being, the HealthEU center will help students with their emotional, financial, social and purposeful well-being. Räisänen said the center will include a new fitness center, classrooms, student spaces and offices for various Elon University departments.
Räisänen said the HealthEU center’s fitness center will be three stories, with resistance training equipment on the first floor, cardio equipment on the second and Elon University’s first indoor track on the third. The new fitness center will replace the one currently in the Koury Center, with the existing exercise equipment being relocated to the HealthEU center. According to Räisänen, plans for repurposing the Koury Center are not finalized yet.
The departments coming to the HealthEU center are Health Promotion, Campus Recreation and Counseling Services. According to Räisänen, these departments are being moved to a central location on campus to increase students’ access to important resources.
“We do want to make sure that students have opportunities to promote their health proactively before there is a problem,” Räisänen said. “We want to make sure that the expertise we have at Elon to support well-being is really accessible to students.”
Anita Hodnett, director of Counseling Services, said in a statement to Elon News Network that she served as a partner on the planning and development workgroups for HealthEU. Hodnett wrote that Counseling Services has been planning how to use the space to better help students.
“One of the most meaningful benefits is that the HealthEU center places Counseling Services at the heart of campus,” Hodnett wrote. “We anticipate that greater visibility and accessibility will further reduce stigma and normalize help-seeking behaviors.”
The office for Counseling Services is based in the R.N. Ellington Center for Health and Wellness on South Campus. Hodnett said the HealthEU center’s larger and more centralized space will give Counseling Services more opportunities to help, as well as show students that Elon University cares about mental health.
Haught said the HealthEU center is a difficult project, but one that will greatly benefit Elon students and faculty.
“The administration is forward-thinking about making the best all-around experience for the students that they can,” Haught said. “I think the leadership should be commended for all that forward-thinking and master planning that they've done, and their concern for the health and wellness of all the students.”