This Saturday, the Board of Trustees granted final approval on a $3.5 million turf and green space project that would transform the green space adjacent to the soccer stadium along High Street, according to Athletic Director Peg Bradley-Doppes. The project is expected to finish in October; Bradley-Doppes said she hopes the 18-week project will commence sometime within the next 30 days.
“The more space that we can create, the more of an anchor that we can keep our students on campus,” said Bradley-Doppes. “We’re blessed that we have Wash Park here, we have Veteran’s park, we have Observatory park, University park, but ideally we’d love to be able to keep our students, undergraduate and graduate, on campus to play.”
The space will be composed of side-by-side turf fields with lights and will stretch down to High Street. The space will be available for varsity athletics, intramurals and recreation athletics, student engagement and community usage.
“This is in response to the needs of our university community, certainly a response to the last six or seven years to working with the president of USG,” said Bradley-Doppes. “We’re delighted that there will be more space.”
Bradley-Doppes said she has also been talking with USG about creating recreational areas on the south side of campus.
“I know that the success of the basketball court down [on the south side of campus] and the overuse of that has made our students look across campus saying, ‘Where else could we play and what else could we do?’” said Bradley-Doppes. “I think that there is some great creative leadership by our students, looking to see where else we can find space and how can we create partnerships so it’s a win-win.”
USG President Sam Estenson said USG senators are considering the parking lot across the street from Johnson-McFarlane Hall and across Iliff Avenue as a space to create green space and grass volleyball courts.
“That lot is above and beyond the most ideal lot right now, and so we’re trying to make that one work,” said Estenson.
According to Estenson, the project would potentially start sometime next spring, depending on weather. He also said that USG needs to pick a place that won’t conflict with university construction needs.
“It will depend a little bit on the future land use projects of the next basically five to ten years of the university,” said Estenson.
Bradley-Doppes said the university is also trying to find ways to grow its outdoor programs.
“We’re at capacity with a lot of club and recreation programs,” said Bradley-Doppes. “We’ve grown so much where it’s a fine line now we’ve outgrown our space and so we’re renting space at many of the parks around and areas around in order just to continue to offer programming. It’s a wonderful problem.”
For the future, Bradley-Doppes expressed interest in looking at other parts of campus to create more recreational areas for students, like on top of parking structures.
“It’s something institutions that are landlocked have had great success with; if you look at Brown University, they have a field hockey field on top of a parking structure on top of a building,” said Bradley-Doppes. “If we’re not using this 24/7, can we use this space, this area, for other reasons when it’s not being utilized for its intended purpose?”
Bradley-Doppes said the university will continue to thrive and grow as long as it finds reasons to have people engaged on campus.
“The more that we can get our faculty, our students and staff active on their campus, the better it is for the community culture,” said Bradley-Doppes.
