SF State’s Associated Students, Inc. hosted a town hall meeting to present the progress of the new Mashouf Wellness Center construction to students Monday in the Cesar Chavez Student Center.

The Mashouf Wellness Center will be a venue for recreational activity at SF State and is slated for completion in 2017, according to the project’s website.

“It’s going pretty well; we’re chugging ahead,” said Associated Students, Inc. Vice President of Facilities and Services Jordan James-Harvill. “We have about 25 trucks a day that are taking dirt off of the construction site to the East Bay.”

The Mashouf Wellness Center will be the first development of its kind for SF State, slated to house facilities catering to not only physical health but spiritual needs as well, according to James-Harvill.

“We just went through a long process doing the mission statement,” James-Harvill said. “Through that, we discovered that students want a sense of community and holistic health.”

According to James-Harvill, the building aims to fulfill the spiritual side of what’s missing from the campus.

ASI and campus recreation have been involved with the planning, design, architecture and layout of the new center, according to ASI President Phoebe Dye.

The project broke ground in the summertime, according to Pam Su, director of campus recreation. Building construction will begin around mid-December, according to James-Harvill, who said alumnus and founder of Bebe Stores, Manny Mashouf, made a multi-million dollar investment to the project.

Other funding for the project comes from students themselves, according to Dye. Dye said that ASI surveyed students about plans for a workout and recreation center about seven years ago. The Golden Gate Xpress previously reported that students first payed a $35, per-semester fee in 2010 to fund the center. The fee increased to $90 in 2012 and is expected to jump to $160 per semester by the time the facility opens, Xpress reported.

According to the past Xpress article, members of the Student Union at SF State were upset that they were not consulted regarding the naming of the center.

“We want the students to know that the administration did not follow school regulation for the naming of the health and wellness center,” President of the Student Union of San Francisco Shannon Jose was quoted in the Xpress article. “We also want to stress that the students have also put in money from their wallets to fund this building and that’s why the students have the right to be the ones to name it, or at least be given the opportunity to give input on the student health and wellness center.”

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James-Harvill said the wellness center project is on its way to becoming designated Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum, which is a certification the U.S. Green Building Council awards to buildings under construction that demonstrate leadership in engineering and design.

“We’re taking every step to be sustainable,” James-Harvill said. “That’s the target – we’re heading there and are very optimistic.”

It took a long time for the Mashouf Wellness Center project to be approved, according to Su. ASI conceived the project in 2008, according to the website.

“ASI really did their due diligence in hiring a consultant to ask the students what they want,” Su said. “Even though we’re two different entities, we work hand in hand to make sure this will happen for the campus.”