Cal Alum 82 wrote:
owen riley wrote:I went to Cal in the late 80's and was always struck by how limited the recreational facilities were for the regular student. Just a small portion of the money that is spent keeping the intercollegiate athletics department afloat could be better used to build and maintain fitness and rec facilities that were accessible to the greater student body.
If you were in fact attending Cal in the late 80's as you claim, how could you not remember the $20 million dollar RSF (Recreational Sports Facility) that was built in 1984?
http://www.recsports.berkeley.edu/http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1999/1027/rsf.htmlThe last I checked, the operating budget for the RSF is around $8.6 million as of 2005.
GO BEARS!
Yes, I was there from 86-90 and I remember the RSF well. I lived on Blake street a few blocks from the campus most of my time there. The RSF -- Decent facilities, -especially when they were new -- but given the sheer numbers of students attending the university, everything was bound to be crowded there. I can recall barely being able to move around in that weight room, waiting forever to be able to get in a pickup bball game in the field house, and heavily restricted times in Spekier pool due to the constant use by the water polo and swim teams. I also remember not being able to toss a football around on Kleeberger with my buds or even run on the outside of the track at Edwards because, of course, intercollegiate sports had exclusive use of these facilities the vast majority of the time.
Thankfully the XC and track teams didn't claim exclusive use of the firetrail above Memorial.
I'm not anti-intercollegiate athletics, and I'm not advocating that the olympic-caliber swimmers attending Cal fit in their workouts around swim aerobics classes, or that Tedford re-schedule practice to accommodate a fraternity ultimate frisbee tourney at Memorial -- but if my university were floating 5-6 mil a year (never to be paid back) to an athletic department that can't manage itself, I would seriously ask the AD to make sure that the big buck facilities also be open for use by regular students. Shoot -- take even half of that money and build another RSF on the other side of campus to give people options.