Rutgers athletic facilities plan to be showcased in June
A plan to upgrade the University’s athletic facilities will be presented sometime in late June, according to an April 1 article on nj.com.
Although University President Robert L. Barchi declined to supply details about the plan in his interview with NJ Advance Media, two sources familiar with the project said the facility upgrades would include a practice gymnasium for the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
The sources wished to remain anonymous because the facilities project is still in negotiation, according to nj.com.
Although the University’s Board of Governors discussed topics including the Rutgers-Newark Physical Master Plan and announcement of Bill Nye as the Rutgers–New Brunswick 2015 commencement speaker, their April 2 meeting in Newark did not address athletic facilities on the New Brunswick campus.
There are no plans to discuss athletic facility upgrades until the next Board of Governors meeting at the New Brunswick campus on June 18, Barchi said.
“The feasibility study, it has all been done,” Barchi told NJ Advance Media. “We're just queueing up the plans to present them to the boards. So we should be finished with this, probably by the June board meeting.”
This announcement comes in the wake of several comments by New Jersey Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D–Union), who called for Barchi to invest in upgrades for the 38-year-old Louis Brown Athletic Center on Livingston campus, according to a previous article in The Daily Targum.
Following Lesniak’s public denouncement of the University president in late February, Barchi began to hold strategy meetings with athletic officials, including athletic director Julie Hermann, men’s basketball coach Eddie Jordan, women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer and football coach Kyle Flood.
Barchi said the University will do whatever it takes to support its role in the Big Ten conference.
“The only thing I'm going to say at this point is we're going to go as big as we need to go for our teams to be competitive in the league,” Barchi told NJ Advance Media. “The rest of it, I think you'll have to wait. I'm not going to preempt my Board.”
Dan Corey is a Rutgers Business School first-year student majoring in pre-business and journalism and media studies. He is an Associate News Editor at The Daily Targum. Follow him on Twitter @_dancorey for more stories.
