University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn Celebrates Groundbreaking for The Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center
4/23/2025 4:47:00 PM | General
STORRS, Conn. – Wednesday, April 23, 2025 will mark the beginning of a new era for UConn Athletics with the official groundbreaking of The Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center on campus.
The 70-year-old field house complex in the heart of UConn Storrs will serve a new generation of Huskies with renovations to house several sports programs and support student-athletes' academic needs and well-being.
The Guyer Gymnasium on Hillside Avenue will be fully overhauled starting this spring, along with renovation of smaller spaces in the connecting Hugh S. Greer Field House and Wolff-Zackin Natatorium.
Together, they will be known as the Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center in recognition of alumnae Dr. Trisha M. Bailey '99 (CLAS), whose significant lead gift is among the largest from any UConn graduate.
The project will bring athletics, research, academic support, sports medicine, and other programs together in one facility to build upon each other in support of the student success journey, one of the mainstays of UConn's Strategic Plan.
The renovations will also help UConn address Title IX equity requirements and add 50 to 60 more years to the useful life of the field house complex, which has been a mainstay in the campus core since it opened in December 1950.
If all stays on schedule, it will open in spring 2027.
Earlier on Wednesday, UConn announced a transformative $15 million commitment from longtime supporters Denis and Britta Nayden that will establish The Nayden Center for Academic Excellence within the Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center. At the core of this transformative project, the 12,000 square foot academic center will become the home for holistic development, academic accomplishment, and well-being for every student-athlete at UConn. This comprehensive space will facilitate learning, testing, meeting, tutoring, and all academic activities.
The gymnasium will be renovated to house UConn's Student-Athlete Success Program (SASP), which supports student-athletes with tutoring, study spaces, post-graduation career or academic planning, and other academic services.
It will also house offices, support spaces, locker rooms, team meeting areas, and other spaces for women's field hockey, women's rowing, women's tennis, women's swimming & diving, women's cross country, and men's and women's track & field.
The field house opened in December 1954 and has been used for many purposes since then, most recently as UConn's Student Recreation Center. Plans were envisioned to renovate it for another use after the new recreation center opened in 2019, but funding constraints and complexities of dealing with the COVID pandemic slowed those plans.
In addition to housing the SASP and sports teams, the renovated complex will include additional space for UConn's Department of Kinesiology, strength and conditioning rooms, rehabilitation and recovery areas, hydrotherapy and biomechanical analysis, and other needs.
The exterior also will be modernized with masonry repairs, a new accessible entrance, access to public restrooms for events at Sherman Field, and a new roof and related mechanical equipment.
The renovations also provide an opportunity for UConn to significantly improve the complex's green-friendly features, with plans to meet LEED Gold standards that complement UConn's Sustainability Action Plan to achieve carbon neutrality on campus by 2030.
