Get Outside To Bring Home Success through SUU Outdoors

Published: September 05, 2014 | Read Time: 2 minutes

What can you do with $3? Buy a few items off the dollar menu or maybe a gallon of milk. For Southern Utah University students, $3 was all it took for SUU Outdoors to decrease prices on rental equipment and remove fees entirely for outdoor day excursions.

Now with minimal fees applied to going outside, students can obtain more than just money in their pockets. According to Rob Myers, SUU Outdoor coordinator, “participating in canyoneering or kayaking trips to area outdoor attractions allow you to mix with other students with common interests. And ultimately learn that there is so much to do in Cedar City, just walk outside your door.”

But why else should you take a break from your homework and enter the great outdoors? Lynn White, SUU psychology professor, stated that no matter the aerobic pace of the activity getting outside stimulates better physical and mental health.

“In order to be successful in college, you need to be physically well and part of that comes by going outside or doing some type of physical activity,” said White.

White also noted that getting outdoors, especially after hours of being indoors, gives the necessary stimuli to enhance cognitive processing, helps you deal with stress more effectively, and provides the necessary vitamin D to remain healthy.

“Getting up and moving doesn’t mean going on a run or doing a strenuous hike, even just taking a walk or moving your studies outside provides the necessary jolt of energy to keep fatigue at bay,” White explained.

With SUU Outdoors receiving approval to up student fees by a mere $3 allowed the Center to decrease rental fees by 25 percent and remove all fees for the 15 outdoor day trips planned for the semester and the climbing wall.

Myers explained that the main reason students didn’t attend excursions or rent equipment in the past was the fee and now with no fees attached to some of the Centers programs, use has already increased by 400 percent, only two weeks into the semester.

To help beat those studying doldrums and boost your academic success this semester, SUU Outdoors has also increased its operating hours and expanded its collection of rentable equipment, which now includes inflatable kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, longboards and drift trikes, all available for use by students, campus employees and community members.

Check in at SUU Outdoors located in the Sharwan Smith Student Center to sign up for one of their many hiking, caving, canyoneering or climbing day excursions or to rent equipment

Photo credit: Keith Howells, SUU students at Lady Mountain in Zion National Park. 

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