Posts tagged development
$143 Million Athletic Facilities Re-Design Approved By 9-0 Vote
Dec 4th
DENVER – The University of Colorado athletic department on Wednesday took its most significant step forward in two-plus decades, receiving the green light from the school’s Board of Regents to proceed with a comprehensive facilities re-design and upgrade.
The Regents voted 9-0 to approve a $143 million plan presented by Athletic Director Rick George that will:
· Add an indoor multipurpose practice facility (football field/300 meter track), whose location is to be determined. The proposed site is on Franklin Field, just east of Folsom Field’s east side. The indoor facility also would be used for tailgating on game day;
· Refurbish the Dal Ward Athletics Center, which was completed in 1991, to include an Olympic sports strength training room in the sub-basement level and new locker rooms and equipment room on the field level.
· Redesign Dal Ward’s first floor for the expansion of Olympic sports/sports medicine, a leadership development center and an end zone club with club seating and loge boxes;
· Transform the second floor of Dal Ward to increase the athletic department’s academic support system from its current 5,115 square feet to 17,200 square feet. The training table will remain on the second floor;
· Add a 21,900-square foot high-performance sports center on the northeast corner of the stadium, as well as a rooftop terrace on the northeast corner (which will generate revenue by being rentable for non-game-day events), converting the south offices at Folsom Field to retail space. The rooftop terrace is also to be used on non-game-day events.
· Also proposed for the third floor of the sports performance center are team meeting rooms. Coaches’ offices and athletic administration offices will move from their current locations at Folsom Field’s “gates” to the suite level (fourth) on Folsom’s east side.
“I’m very excited about what this will do for our program long-term,” said George, who was named CU’s athletic director on July 18 and started work on Aug. 12. “It will allow us to create a world-class, holistic student-athlete experience. It will allow us to compete for and win championships, and it will allow us to become fiscally responsible. I believe it’s a long-term sustainable model.”
He said the long-range, comprehensive plan obviously was well-received by the Regents: “Getting a 9-0 vote is very rewarding for the whole group that has worked on this.”
By the time ground is broken – hopefully this spring – on the department’s “sustainable excellence initiative,” George hopes to have one-third of the money raised. “It could be corporately, it could be an annual revenue that we generate, it could be private donors.”
Regent Steve Bosley called George’s proposal “a well-thought out business plan” that represents a large and potentially lucrative investment for the campus, city of Boulder and state. Of the possible criticism aimed at launching such a project without a large number of donations in hand, Bosley said, “That dog won’t hunt.” He said he prefers “starting with a vision and turning it into a plan.”
Close to $10 million “in actual gifts and concrete pledges” has been raised thus far, George said. “And in the last two months, we’ve canvassed all areas of the country, from our own backyard to each coast and have ‘asks’ out there in the neighborhood of $40 million more.”
While a $50 million goal initially was stated, with an early December timetable, George said that number “was never one that we had to meet by December. We are enthusiastic, focused and driven on raising the initial funds needed for the plan . . . however, it is not, and never has been, a deal-breaker to have raised the money by the first of December.”
The upgrading of CU’s facilities, said George, goes beyond potentially leveling the playing field in the Pac-12. Rather, “It’s what we should be doing for our student-athletes,” he said. “This is a significant area of need for our student-athletes. We don’t have locker room spaces, we don’t have academic spaces that our student-athletes need to be successful, to have a great experience – and we need to address that.
“We have a strength facility that’s only 10,000 square feet for 300-plus student-athletes, spirit squad, what have you. It’s a need, something we need to have for this program to be successful. Notwithstanding what other schools are doing, what they’re doing is great, but this is what we need at CU to be successful long-term.”
In attending Pac-12 Conference football games over the past several years – CU has been a Pac-12 member since 2011 – Regent Sue Sharkey said she became aware of a facilities upgrades from “seeing cranes all over the place” at football stadiums. “We need to get it done and we need to get it done now,” she said.
In addition to George’s presentation on Wednesday, the Regents heard from football coach Mike MacIntyre; men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle (via video); Kris Livingston, associate athletic director/student success; Miguel Rueda, head athletic trainer. The Regents also watch several video presentations from student-athletes in all sports speaking about their various facility needs.
MacIntyre told the board he was “excited” about the future of the university and CU football, but added, “There’s a ceiling we’ll hit in recruiting if this (the facilities upgrade) if this not done. It’s always either the first or second question I get in recruiting. He also said coaches he recruits against in the Pac-12 Conference have come into Colorado pursing in-state prospects and, because of CU’s current facilities, have questioned the school’s overall commitment to athletics. His first Buffs team finished 4-8 overall, 1-8 in the Pac-12 Conference.
Livingston told the Regents the athletic department’s academic support system’s physical resources have shrunk over the last several years from 8,400 square feet to just over 5,000 square feet. By way of comparison to another Pac-12 member, Oregon’s athletic department academic space is at 40,000 square feet. But Oregon also has nearly twice as many student-athletes as CU’s 340.
Rueda said the high performance sports center would help him and his staff better identify and treat student-athletes before minor injuries become major. The center, he added, “will allow for a program where our student-athletes will receiver world-class and holistic resources dedicated to helping them achieve.”
George said the proposal’s next phase is a presentation to architects. He hopes ground can be broken this spring, with a completion date of the 2015-16 academic-athletic year. The upgrades, he said, will put the Buffs “on par with the best out there” and will “set us up for the long-term and put an end for any Band-Aid type improvements to get us through the short-term. We’ll be set for a long time.
DAVID PLATI | ASSOCIATE AD/SPORTS INFORMATION
Climate change early warning system called for
Dec 3rd
Climate change has increased concern over possible large and rapid changes in the physical climate system, including Earth’s atmosphere, land surfaces and oceans, said Professor James White of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and the chair of the National Research Council committee. Some abrupt changes and impacts already underway – including the loss of Arctic sea ice and increases in the extinction rates of marine and terrestrial species – and others could occur within a few decades or even years, said the committee.
“Research has helped us begin to distinguish more imminent threats from those that are less likely to happen this century,” said White, also a CU-Boulder professor in geological sciences. “Evaluating climate changes and impacts in terms of their potential magnitude and the likelihood they will occur will help policymakers and communities make informed decisions about how to prepare for or adapt to them.”
Other scenarios, such as the destabilization of the west Antarctic ice sheet, have potentially major consequences, but the probability of these changes occurring within the next century is not well understood, highlighting the need for more research, according to the committee.
In some cases, scientific understanding has progressed enough to determine whether certain high-impact climate changes are likely to happen within the next century. The report notes that a shutdown in the Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns or a rapid release of methane from high-latitude permafrost or undersea ice are now known to be unlikely this century, although these potential abrupt changes are still worrisome over longer time horizons.
But even changes in the physical climate system that happen gradually over many decades or centuries can cause abrupt ecological or socio-economic change once a “tipping point” is reached, the report adds. Relatively slow global sea-level rise could directly affect local infrastructure such as roads, airports, pipelines or subway systems if a sea wall or levee is breached. And slight increases in ocean acidity or surface temperatures could cross thresholds beyond which many species cannot survive, leading to rapid and irreversible changes in ecosystems that contribute to extinction events.
Further scientific research and enhanced monitoring of the climate, ecosystems and social systems may be able to provide information that a tipping point is imminent, allowing time for adaptation or possibly mitigation, or that a tipping point has recently occurred, the report says.
“Right now we don’t know what many of these thresholds are,” White said. “But with better information, we will be able to anticipate some major changes before they occur and help reduce the potential consequences.” The report identifies several research needs, such as identifying keystone species whose population decline due to an abrupt change would have cascading effects on ecosystems and ultimately on human provisions such as food supply.
If society hopes to anticipate tipping points in natural and human systems, an early warning system for abrupt changes needs to be developed, the report says. An effective system would need to include careful and vigilant monitoring, taking advantage of existing land and satellite systems and modifying them if necessary, or designing and implementing new systems when feasible. It would also need to be flexible and adaptive, regularly conducting and alternating between data collection, model testing and model predictions that suggest future data needs.
The study was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, U.S. intelligence community, and the National Academies. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, independent nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to NAS in 1863. The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
For more information and a copy of the report visit http://national-academies.org. For more information on INSTAAR visithttp://instaar.colorado.edu.
ESA: So much accomplished, so much to do
Nov 13th
BC1 news editor
The federal Endangered Species turns 40 years old this year. It was signed into law by Richard (“I am not a crook”) Nixon, in 1973, likely as a desperation move to garner public support for his collapsing presidency. The significance of this law is that, for the first time in history federal law recognized there are limits to economic development —i.e. when a species would be driven to extinction as a result of the activities. That, my friends, is a Line in the Sand.
The ESA has been incredibly effective, thanks almost entirely to the Center for Biological Diversity, which was instrumental in protecting more than 1,400 species and 200 million acres of critical habitat in the U.S. alone. Ninety nine percent of species protected by the ESA have been saved from extinction. The CBD uses law and science to make its case, bucking the trend of most major environmental groups, which rarely sue any longer for any reason. This happened because BIG OIL has undue influence in the environmental community by having representatives on the environmental groups’ board of directors and by funding these groups with the tacit understanding that the groups won’t oppose projects beneficial to oil and gas profits. Nevertheless, current trends are threatening to reverse the situation. Global climate change could be the most damaging threat in history, with profound implications for both animals and human beings. There are others.
To honor the ESA, Boulder Channel 1 will run a series of articles about the most serious of these threats.
By the Center for Biological Diversity
FRACKING THREATENS AMERICA’S AIR, WATER AND CLIMATE It poisons our water, contaminates our air and emits massive greenhouse gas pollution. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves blasting huge volumes of water mixed with toxic chemicals and sand deep into the earth to fracture rock formations and release oil and natural gas. This extreme form of energy production endangers our health and wildlands.
A fracking boom can transform an area almost overnight, creating massive new environmental and social problems. Fracking development is intensifying in Pennsylvania, Texas and North Dakota and moving into new areas, like California and Nevada. Will your state be fracked next? But as fracking spreads across America, communities are fighting back — and the Center for Biological Diversity is working to ban this growing threat. POLLUTING AIR AND WATER, KILLING WILDLIFE
About 25 percent of fracking chemicals could cause cancer, scientists say. Others harm the skin or reproductive system. Evidence is mounting throughout the country that these chemicals — as well as methane released by fracking — are making their way into aquifers and drinking water. Fracking can release dangerous petroleum hydrocarbons, including benzene and xylene. It also increases ground-level ozone levels, raising people’s risk of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Wildlife is also in danger. Fish die when fracking fluid contaminates streams and rivers. Birds are poisoned by chemicals in wastewater ponds. And the intense industrial development accompanying fracking pushes imperiled animals out of wild areas they need to survive. In California, for example, more than 100 endangered and threatened species live in the counties where fracking is set to expand. DISRUPTING
OUR CLIMATE Fracking releases large amounts of methane, a dangerously potent greenhouse gas. Fracked shale gas wells, for example, may have methane leakage rates as high as 7.9 percent, which would make such natural gas worse for the climate than coal. But fracking also threatens our climate in another way. To prevent catastrophic climate change, we must leave about 80 percent of proven fossil fuel reserves in the ground. Fracking takes us in the opposite direction, opening up vast new deposits of fossil fuels. If the fracking boom continues, oil and gas companies will light the fuse on a carbon bomb that will shatter efforts to avert climate chaos. BAN FRACKING NOW To protect our environment from fracking, we must prohibit this inherently dangerous technique. That’s why the Center supports fracking bans and moratoriums at the local, state and national levels. Learn about fracking and please take action against it today.