Media Credit: Ryan Heidt

Media Credit: courtesy of uoalumni.com An artist's rendering shows what the new alumni center will look like. The University is designing the center as part of a new 'gateway' to campus and hopes that the facility's proximity to the residence halls will encourage students to interact with both alumni and faculty.

The three-story glass building that will soon replace the athletic department's aging academic learning services center for student athletes will be a state of the art facility - brimming with at least two dozen committed staff and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of new computer equipment.

And if you're not a varsity student athlete, you're not invited upstairs.

Even though private academic services are already available to student athletes, the idea that a lavish new building is going up and only a handful of students have access to it is kicking up dust among some students and professors.

"I think whatever is offered to the athletes, all those extra perks, I would like to get some of that; being that I am not an athlete, yet paying for school," said University student Collin Bonsey.

Exclusive access to academic services is not necessarily new, however. Upper division students in most major courses have labs designated for their use, and athletes at nearly all Division 1 schools have academic centers for their sole use.

The general student body has access to Academic Learning Services, which is housed in the basement of Prince Lucien Campbell hall. ALS offers private tutors for $8 to $12 per session or $120 for a full term.

It also offers drop-in support for grammar, statistics and study skills.

Student athletes are provided with free personal tutoring programs each term. Soon they will have sole access to two floors of the new academic building, more tutors, 225 laptops and 100 desktop computers.

"I can see a center that creates a level playing field - that student athletes are given the support to catch up academically (for the time missed at games) with their non-student athlete colleagues," wrote University professor Richard Sundt in an e-mail to the Emerald.

"The question for me is, and I don't know the answers, is whether the amount of staff, equipment and space of the learning center is so great, over the top if you will, that it now gives a greater advantage to student athletes over regular students, many of whom have to work to make ends meet."

The building is being built by Phil Knight's developing company, although the name of the official donor is still undisclosed. An agreement with the donor includes specific mandates about what the center will offer, including at least 10 parking spaces reserved for student athletes.

The new 35,000-square-foot academic center, which will be located on the parking lot on the corner of 13th Avenue and Agate Street, will displace at least 178 parking spaces. The University hopes to build a 500-car underground lot beneath the basketball arena to reconcile the loss, but some find the special treatment questionable.

"They're getting greater preference over us," said University student Seth Wickremarachchi. "That's not fair."

Athletic department spokesman Dave Williford said taking donations, even when they come with strings attached, is better than not taking them at all.

"This is a donor with a specific request," Williford said. "Are you going to say, 'No, we're not going to do this and then we have neither?'"

ASUO President Emily McLain acknowledged that the University needs to upgrade its academic center for athletes, but said there should be an equal focus on getting donations for academic buildings, student housing and other support services.

"We shouldn't just be talking about good facilities for student athletes, we should also be discussing improved facilities for all students," McLain said. "It should be both, not neither."

Recruitment

The student athletes who use the current academic center, which is housed in a roughly 80-year-old office next to McArthur Court, say they get a lot of use out of the facility.

The current facility, with its low ceilings and musky scent, is broken up into a mess of small rooms and computer labs. Some athletes are required to spend at least eight hours there per week because of sluggish grades.

It's important for recruitment. Having a nice facility is as important as wearing a suit to an interview, Oregon basketball center Ray Schafer said.

Maarty Leunen, who, along with a handful of other men's basketball players, graduated before the season started, said new buildings weigh heavily with recruits.

"This generation of kids like the glitz and the glamour and the new technology," Leunen said. "If you're a teenager now, you like that kind of stuff, knowing that you'll be working with the finest equipment and the top-notch stuff."

The University of Washington, Washington State University and Oregon State University do not have specific buildings intended for student athlete academic services, instead they share space with other athletic buildings near their gymnasiums or weight rooms. The University of Michigan, a school the University considers a comparative university, in 2006 built a $12 million, 38,000 square-foot academic center.

Schafer said that although many students have jobs and other responsibilities competing with academics for attention, student athletes are obligated by the University to miss classes to travel. They also represent the University if they don't graduate or get in trouble.

"I think it's very helpful to have things that give us a chance to succeed," he said.

Some wonder if it's too much.

"Is the center going beyond creating a level playing field?" Sundt said. "That to me is the main question, and students ought to weigh in on this."

rknutson@dailyemerald.com

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