Recreation meets passion in the department of Recreation Services, with Sandi Carlisle taking over as director this year.

In her plans to improve Recreation Services, Carlisle wants to reach out across the campus community to find out what the students want from Recreation Services. She would like to concentrate on being a service organization, focus on interaction and make sure Recreation Services helps students have fun and relieve stress.

Carlisle began serving as director on Aug. 16 and will oversee the Campus Recreation Center, Chick Evans Field House, Outing Centre, intramural fields and programming in the Anderson and Gabel Hall pools. In addition, she will oversee all staff, programs and services the department has to offer, as well as manage the budget and any large facility renovations.

“I’m passionate about recreation. I’m very glad to be the director,” Carlisle said. “You should leave having experienced whatever you’ve chosen to do here refreshed, and [feel] that we did our job playing a positive role in that experience,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle believes that having an active, balanced lifestyle is important and seeing people actively improving their lifestyle gives her great satisfaction. She thinks people should be active, find what they like to do and take a break to get away from the stress of daily life.

“We really want to focus on how we serve the campus population,” Carlisle said. She hopes to work with the entire department to strive to make recreation fun.

“Sandi has an outgoing personality and is looking forward to bringing what she has to the table,” said Dan Swan, assistant director of outdoor programming at Recreation Services. Prior to taking over as director, she spent three years as associate director of residential facilities for NIU’s Housing and Dining and two years as the assistant director. She also spent 13 years at Texas State University, where she held various positions including assistant director of sport clubs, assistant director of intramural sports and associate director of facility operations.

In addition, Carlisle had a part in planning the building of a student recreation center at TSU and helped open a shared recreation facility in Oregon, Ill., where she spent four years as a part of the Oregon Park District.

Stephanie Kohl is a campus reporter for the Northern Star.