Campus Oval proposal

Posted by admin on Nov 3, 2009 in Sports | 0 comments

Everybody calm down! In case you haven’t noticed, TWUSA has suddenly discovered a passion for fighting the “Student Activity Fee.” As covered in the first issue of Mars’ Hill this year, the banks blocked the loan that TWU was applying for to help finance the turf-field project, which is where the money collected by the student activity would have gone.

However, an alternative to the turf field has been proposed.

In documents received by Mars’ Hill, “Campus Oval,” the new proposal, has been submitted which would bring a 300 foot length field that would be 110-140 feet wide to TWU. The location for the proposal would be the green-space that exits between the Atrium and the Music Building (see back cover.) Also included in this proposal is a bouldering wall. The idea of this project is that it could be used through all four seasons at TWU and used primarily for “drop in” use. Recreation Services is hoping this innovation will bring unconventional and non-traditional sports like flag football, Ultimate Frisbee, and rock climbing to TWU for free use. This would be 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Dale Baumgartner, Director of Recreation Services, sees this as huge opportunity for students. “We are dealing with millennial students. They are into their own sports and we want to enrich their on-campus experience.” Baumgartner notes that the “Campus Oval” could start something that TWU’s campus has been lacking for sometim: a facility where students would be able to play their pick up games for studybreaks or to give studens an outlet in their free time. In the proposal submitted to the Rec Enhancement Committee, it notes that “a recent national survey ranked our campus recreation facilities poorly, when compared to other universities. The fact highlights in part, our lack of athletic fields.”

However, the savvy part of this whole plan is the bouldering wall and Daryl Page couldn’t be happier. Page noted that his HKIN 120 “Rock Climbing” class, is always filled to capacity (24 students) with a waitlist of 60 people. “This is the best thing ever! The goal is trying to push non-tradition sports on campus” says Page. The bouldering wall, which has been designed by David Wilson and would cost $15,000 to build and would see a “style of rock climbing that has no need for specialized equipment for such ropes and harnesses, since it is limited to lower climbs.”

There are two small problems that will exist with this plan. The first is that the volleyball courts will likely have to be moved to another location to ensure the maximum length of field. The other problem will be the removal of staff parking. However, both of these small problems have been met with open arms around campus, offering ideas of how to defeat
these problems.

In any event, while the Student Recreation Fee has not yielded any results to this day, this innovative idea has sparked interest around campus and could be implemented by the fall of 2010. The reason for quick action is a result of the money being ready to be spent now; due to the fact many people feel the student activity fee has been completely unjustified.