The story behind Western's new sports field

By Gerry Blakney Editor in Chief

Early this September, Western's administration, Campus Recreation and the Associated Students (ASWOU) started the process to recondition five acres of farmland to create new playing space for club sports. Two weeks later the campus is in a frenzy over the prospect of a new field.

The land in question is slated to become two, full-sized fields that will eventually be prioritized in favor of Western's club sports, other university use and will be available for miscellaneous community uses.Rugby and lacrosse have received most of the media attention for needing the new fields, but Vice President for Student Affairs, Gary Dukes, wants to be clear that "the fields will not be exclusive to only the rugby and lacrosse teams."

"At this time, why we are bringing the space online (is) to provide better space for club sports," Dukes said.

Western administration notified the seed farmer, who previously leased the land from the university, early this September that five acres would be taken back and used by the university before the planting season began. The farmer will continue to lease the remaining 20 acres from Western for grass seed production at this time.

The men and women rugby teams currently practice on the Gentle House field that is rented out by Western's Foundation. The rugby teams lose access to their practice fields while the Gentle House hosts an event. The lacrosse team practices in an undeveloped, University owned field adjacent to the new Alder View townhouses. Both teams have the present intramural field available for home games, though the lacrosse team has decided not to use the fields this year choosing instead to rent West Salem High School's artificial turf field for their upcoming season.

Preparing the field for play will cost the university $65,000 in an initial, one-time sum. Western's administration is paying for the field from the university's fund balance. The decision to pay for the fields from the university's general fund instead of asking the student fee committee (Incidental Fee Committee, IFC) for the money was made because of time concerns. The administration would not be able to present changes to the student fee committee for the field until Winter term and would not have access to the funds until July 2008 if allocated, delaying the project for at least a year. The university chose to pay for the field prior to the students voicing their concerns over the time line. No cuts will be made to the budget to pay for the new fields.

While the university plans to pay for the field reconditioning, there are no plans in place to fund the maintenance and up-keep of the fields. The fields have to be mowed once a week and watered, which will cost the university about 250 hours of labor or 4-5 thousand dollars in pure labor costs per year, but may result in the need to hire a new person to work in the field which may be even more expensive.

see club fields / 4

State guidelines. This process is still ongoing. An engineering firm is currently looking at the field and is working with the Physical Plant to determine how the field's drainage system will be organized to work with the current water patterns on site. The field will be leveled after engineers have finished evaluating the site's drainage needs and the fence is completed. Drainage and the irrigation systems will be laid once the field is leveled, after which grass will be seeded. A parking lot is also planned for the space to help alleviate current and future parking overflow, though how the field will be configured with the parking lot and the necessary street access has not yet been resolved.

"There is only one problem with why someone would say, 'next fall' [for the field to be completed]," said Western President John Minahan. "Grass doesn't grow very well without germination warmth in the ground and sunlight. Let's all pray for an early spring."

The fields are currently slated to be playable by next fall. If Monmouth is faced with an earlier than usual Spring, the fields may be playable as early as spring term, in time for the start of the lacrosse and half way through both of the rugby team's seasons, though the administration is skeptical. A second option that was explored, and subsequently ruled out because it was cost prohibitive, was the possibility of using artificial turf or sod. That option would increase the projects initial costs to approximately $500,000 for artificial turf and about $200,000 for sod.

Minahan quipped that "putting sod out there would be like putting a wool rug on a waxed floor- the rug will slide. If some day we decide to put artificial turf in, and we can afford it, we will put it on the main football field, and rugby and everyone can use the main field."

As a result of the administration's skepticism, ASWOU President Tiffani McCoy, in conjunction with the men's and women's rugby and men's lacrosse teams, have joined forces to form a coalition called the Students of the United Coalition. The Coalition has been busily petitioning for the Western administration to "get [the] fields developed within the next several months," according to a letter from the Coalition courtesy of rugby player Shawn Martin. Additionally, the Coalition waged a letter writing campaign to better explain to the Western administration why the fields were needed so soon.

The petition lasted for two weeks after which time the Coalition voted to remain vigilant with updates on the progress of the fields, but to cease petitioning and letter writing for the time being. The petition was delivered to the administration early this week, while the letters to the administration were delivered in two installments to President Minahan last week and this past Friday, Oct. 5. In total, the Coalition gathered over a thousand signatures and had over eighty letters written to the administration in a just under two weeks.