WPI offers summer yoga classes for faculty, staff and graduate students

WPI is folding yoga into its employee wellness calendar with a 15-class Summer 2026 series for faculty, staff and graduate students. The midday sessions began Monday, June 1 and run through Wednesday, July 29, meeting in person from noon to 12:50 p.m. in the Schwaber Dance Studio on the second floor of the Sports & Rec Center.

The setup makes the program feel less like a special event and more like part of campus infrastructure. Access is limited to faculty, staff and graduate students, with undergraduate students and non-WPI participants excluded, underscoring that the series is being treated as an internal wellness benefit rather than a public class. The schedule is also built for the university day: a 50-minute class at lunchtime is easier to fit around meetings, lab time and administrative work than an evening offering.

That approach matches how WPI describes its broader wellness work. The Center for Well-Being says it is a hub for the holistic well-being of the entire campus community, and its employee programs are offered to faculty and staff to foster vitality, meaning and purpose, relationships and community. WPI adopted the Okanagan Charter on November 13, 2024, formally joining health-promoting universities and colleges and linking its well-being work to people, places and the planet.

Yoga also shows up repeatedly in the university’s wider wellness programming. WPI Wellness Days have featured dog therapy, free food, crafting, yoga, meditation, Reiki and sound bathing, giving the practice a regular place alongside other stress-reduction offerings. The summer series fits that pattern by giving the campus a repeatable movement option during a season when many structured activities slow down.

Catherine Flayhan leads the sessions. WPI identifies her as a 500-hour yoga instructor and Reiki master, and her employee-wellness profile says she can teach students, staff and faculty. WPI has offered similar yoga sessions in FY26 A Term, FY26 B Term, FY26 C Term and Summer 2024, showing that the university has used the format before and continues to return to it.

The larger wellness logic is easy to see. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says studies suggest yoga may help with stress management, mental and emotional health, sleep and balance, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says physical activity can reduce short-term feelings of anxiety in adults. At WPI, that research backdrop is now being translated into a recurring lunchtime class that is built to keep going all summer long.