Nine Boxes, One Seamless Experience: How Oxford College of Emory Made RecRe Part of Everyday Campus Life
When Oxford College flipped the switch on its first RecRe boxes in mid-March 2025, the goal was straightforward: to provide students with a fast, self-service way to access whatever gear they need, whenever they need it. Just weeks later, over 20% of Oxford students have already borrowed something, and more than half of those early adopters have come back for another rental. That kind of repeat use, right after spring break, no less, tells us we’re on the path to becoming a dependable fixture when classes resume this fall.
“This initiative reflects our commitment to holistic student wellbeing, recognizing that the most memorable college experiences often happen in these informal gathering spaces.” — Melanie Lawrence, Senior Associate Dean of Finance, Operations, and Technology oxford.emory.edu
Read the whole Oxford College of Emory University press release about RecRe here – https://oxford.emory.edu/news/2025/03/oxford-recre-boxes.html
One platform, many departments
Oxford shows how a single RecRe deployment can serve vastly different campus needs:
Recreation and Wellness use RecRe to increase spontaneous play and outdoor activity, no need to wait for the equipment cage to open.
Athletics lean on RecRe to extend athletic-training resources beyond practice hours, supporting injury prevention and faster recovery.
Residence Life turns RecRe into a 24-hour front desk, stocking everything from vacuums to board games so RAs can focus on community building instead of key swaps.
Student Affairs use RecRe data to see which items are most popular and adjust programming in real time rather than guessing.
Fast adoption, promising future
In the first month alone, students checked out gear from nine boxes more than a thousand times. That surge happened even with final exams looming, which means interest can only grow when new-student orientation, intramural seasons and fall festivals kick off.
Pierce McDade ’25Ox captured the buzz perfectly: the new third-space upgrades, including RecRe, “will increase the number of ways for students to connect and unwind outside of their learning and living areas.” oxford.emory.edu
What’s next
Our campus partners at Oxford plan to use summer downtime to review usage data, fine-tune inventory and train campus staff how to get the most out of RecRe so first-years see RecRe as a given from day one. That aligns with our broader mission: to make RecRe a seamless layer of student life, just like Wi-Fi and ID cards already are.
Oxford’s early success proves that when you place versatile gear in the right spots, and remove the red tape, students jump at the chance to explore, relax and connect.
Have an idea for how RecRe can help your campus? -> https://recrebox.com/contact-us/
