Technology  April 1, 2005

$10M construction proposal before UNC students

A decision to spend as much as $10 million in new construction at the University of Northern Colorado rests with students who will vote to increase their fees – or not – in balloting this week.

At stake during the April 5-6 election is a five-part overhaul of sports and recreation facilities, jobs that would be plums for architects and builders who submit winning bids.

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Also on the line, partly, is the university’s planned move to the big leagues of college athletics.

UNC is more than halfway through its five-year application process to become a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Big Sky Conference, one that would pit the university’s intercollegiate sports teams against those of much larger schools.

In two ballot decisions, students will vote up or down on raising their fees to pay for the improvements and, in the second question, provide ongoing operations money to intercollegiate sports programs.

If the first measure passes, the school will spend between $8 million and $10 million to construct and improve sports and recreation facilities, with completion targeted for summer 2007.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,´ said Ken McConnellogue, UNC’s vice president for university advancement. “Our students have a history of stepping up to the plate in cases like this. What we’re asking for is reasonable. It’s not an outrageous amount.”

Here is how the money would be spent:

• Reconfiguring sports fields at Butler-Hancock Field, adding synthetic turf, bleachers for 240 spectators, new tennis courts, lighting, irrigation, restroom and storage buildings.

• Adding new concession, restroom and team room facilities at Nottingham Field, where UNC’s football team plays home games.

• Butler-Hancock gymnasium improvements, including new seat-back bleachers, divider curtains, restroom improvements and scoreboard and sound systems.

• Overhauling the Jackson Sports Complex by adding synthetic turf, lighting, scoreboard and restrooms and renovating the press box and third-base dugout.

• Adding a gymnasium to the heavily used Campus Recreation Center, increasing the center’s size by 15,000 square feet.

By all accounts, the facilities at UNC – especially Butler-Hancock gym and the Jackson fields – are almost laughably inadequate.

“There are high schools that have gyms that are superior to ours,´ said Dianna Gray, a UNC professor and director of the university’s populous School of Sport and Exercise Science. “If we want to compete in athletics at the highest level, we have to have the best possible facilities for our students.”

Gray and Campus Recreation Director Cheryl Kent both completed graduate work at Ohio State University – a school that sets records for athletic and recreation spending – before joining the UNC faculty.

Kent said use of the 9-year-old Campus Recreation Center, also funded by a student-approved fee increase, had hit such high levels that expansion is needed. The center gets about a quarter-million visits annually.

“During the academic year, on a lighter day we’ll have 1,200 students coming in,” Kent said. “On busier days, we’ll get 1,900.”

Denver-based architectural firm Sink Combs Dethlefs PC, a specialist in sports and recreation projects, designed the center, built in 1996.

Sink Combs also designed Nottingham Field at UNC, and is assumed to be a front-runner among architecture firms now being considered for the university’s sports facility expansion.

The university’s query for architectural services for the projects drew more than 30 applications, about twice what the university expected, Kent said.

If the fee increase passes muster with the students, UNC’s student fees would still remain lower than other major universities in Colorado, McConnellogue said.

“If both pass, and we’re on the high end, it would add $163 per year,” he said. “That would bring the total to $683. The average for public institutions in Colorado is $718 annually.”

Fees at the University of Colorado stand at $861 annually, and CSU’s fees at $850, McConnellogue said.

Backers of the construction projects have a built-in constituency that will likely determine the election day results, provided they turn out.

Gray’s sport and exercise science program has 750 majors. Kent said 470 students are involved in intercollegiate athletics, and another 360 are involved in club sports.

The projects’ supporters are also counting on the 65 percent of all UNC students who rely on the university’s recreation programs to tip the balance.

“The immediate benefits to students will far outweigh the costs that each student will have to pay,” Gray said. “It’s not only an athletic initiative. But it’s true that the athletic program is the window through which the university is viewed. I learned that at Ohio State.”

A decision to spend as much as $10 million in new construction at the University of Northern Colorado rests with students who will vote to increase their fees – or not – in balloting this week.

At stake during the April 5-6 election is a five-part overhaul of sports and recreation facilities, jobs that would be plums for architects and builders who submit winning bids.

Also on the line, partly, is the university’s planned move to the big leagues of college athletics.

UNC is more than halfway through its five-year application process to become a member of the National Collegiate…

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