After two months of waiting with their fingers crossed, OSU officials have been given the green light to begin construction on the long-awaited Dixon Recreation Center expansion project.
The $19 million project was put on hold in October, two weeks before groundbreaking was set to begin, when the Oregon University System decided to rethink the model in which student funds are allocated for building projects within Oregon’s public universities.
The delay worried both OSU officials and students, who have waited more than 15 years and spent more than $1.5 million in student fees on the planning and architecture leading up to the expansion.
A newly expanded recreation center including 80,000 additional square feet, a suspended running track, new basketball courts and weight equipment, is scheduled to be completed no later than fall 2003.
While the approval of funding is welcome news to the OSU community, some members of the OUS Administrative Council were critical of the process that was used to obtain it.
“I have no complaint about the (Dixon) project, but about the process in which it was decided,” said Dan Williams, University of Oregon vice president for administration and a council member.
Williams said he was surprised the approval went through the way it was because the funding for the project was originally estimated and brought to the board at a figure closer to $10 million, rather than $19 million.
The original planning totaled $10 to $12 million, but the costs in general work was greater than at first anticipated.
The actual costs for direct construction total $15 million, while planning and permits make up the remaining $4 million.
“The process was ignored as I understand it,” Williams said, adding that he thinks it may put other universities at a disadvantage once a final financial model is decided on.
OUS is currently discussing a model in which each university will keep the money it puts in for its own campuses, with the three larger campuses — OSU, UO and PSU — contributing 8 percent of their funds to the smaller campuses for a more fair distribution of funds.
“It was not proven that there was a disadvantage to other schools, although there were concerns,” said Mark McCambridge, OSU vice president of finance and administration.
The new financial model will be the topic of conversation at the next OUS Administrative Council meeting in late January, when a possible decision will be made.