On Nov. 15, 2024, the University of Oregon Campus Planning Committee, also known as the CPC,  approved plans to build new beach volleyball courts as part of the Hamilton Walton Transformation Project. 

The courts will replace Hamilton Hall, with construction set to begin in the fall of this year.

The plans have drawn criticism for failing to provide basic amenities, including on-site restrooms, at the new site.

During a CPC meeting on Nov. 15, 2024, it was noted that only portable toilets would be available at the new site for spectator use during events. 

The approval is the recent step in the process for the UO women’s beach volleyball team to have an on-campus facility.  

The team has previously practiced approximately a mile and a half from campus at Amazon Park. 

In December 2023, 32 female student-athletes from the university, including 26 women’s beach volleyball players and six club team rowers, filed a lawsuit concerning Title IX and the facilities being provided to the team.

Numerous inequities have been revealed between the women’s beach volleyball team and other school-sponsored sports, most notably the lack of their own facility. 

Former beach volleyball player Ashley Schroeder said she believes the approval of the plans wouldn’t have happened without the lawsuit being filed. 

Arthur H. Bryant, the lawyer for the women’s beach volleyball team, said building the new courts was a step in the right direction, but not enough to place the team on equal footing with the school’s other teams. 

“The fact that that’s what they’re coming up with and somehow suggesting this is good enough — it is ridiculous,” Bryant said. “To be clear, it is a huge improvement over what they’ve given the women up to now, which is no facility and a bathroom in a cinder block public bathroom with no doors on the stalls.”

According to UO spokesperson Eric Howald, the CPC could not provide comment on this story.