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The Rice Thresher
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by RACHEL M. KRAUSE THRESHER STAFF Construction on campus will increase again with the building of a club sports facility and an observatory in the middle of the intramural fields scheduled to begin next fall. The facilities, which will be built jointly, were approved as separate projects at the March Board of Trustees meeting. The sports facility, intended especially for the use of club and intramural athletes, will contain restrooms, storage rooms and water fountains. The sports facility has a budget of $323,000, according to Facilities and Engineering Architectural and Engineering Manager John Posch. The observatory for the Space Physics and Astronomy Department, which will contain a dome and a telescope, has a budget of $150,000. Both will be located in the center of the intramural fields. F&E has preliminary designs for the buildings, but they have yet to be presented or approved by the board. F&E has not yet decided if the observatory and the sports facility will be in a single building or located side by side. The design phase will be completed this spring and summer, Posch said. Construction is set to begin this fall, and the projected completion date is in December. However, Posch said it is still too early to predict the exact date of completion. Student Association President Lindsay Botsford explained that the construction phase may begin in either fall or late fall to minimize disruption of games and practices on the IM fields. Botsford, a Wiess College sophomore, wrote a resolution supporting the creation of this facility last October. She said the idea was originally discussed during a meeting of the Club Sports Committee, composed of students and members of the Kinesiology Department. "The original issue was that club sports didn't have a place to store their equipment during the summer," Botsford said. "They can't store it in Autry [Court]." Currently, equipment storage is the responsibility of the club sports team members themselves. Botsford said in October that teams often incur extra expenses because they have to replace lost equipment. Ahtletes will appreciate the restroom facility, Kinesiology Department Coordinator Lorraine McKay said. "When any of the groups need a restroom they have to go into Baker or Shepherd and it is often inappropriate for players to enter with their muddy shoes," she said. "There is also a critical need for water, especially in the Houston summer heat, for players and spectators and the off-campus people who rent the fields during the summer." The SA Senate passed the resolution and sent it to President Malcolm Gillis and Vice President for Finance and Administration Dean Currie, who brought it before the board in March. - back - |
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This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu |
