ELON COLLEGE – The Elon College Board of Trustees has authorized architectural drawings for a $12.8 million on-campus football stadium and other facilities as part of the college’s developing north athletics complex. The action was taken during the board’s annual spring meeting, which was held March 9-10.
The tentative project schedule on the 8,250-seat bowl-shaped football stadium calls for bids to be awarded late this year with construction to begin in April 2000. The goal is to have the stadium ready for the 2001 football season. Ellerbe Becket, a worldwide integrated architecture, engineering and construction services firm based in Minneapolis, is project architect.
In addition to the stadium, the project includes a bell tower, archway and walkway system; an expansion of the existing Koury Field House to provide home and visitors locker rooms; a weight-training room and offices; relocation of the soccer field and expansion of the football practice field; and construction of additional roads and parking in the new stadium site on the north end of campus.
“This project will complete the campus and our transition to Division I athletics, ” said Elon College President Leo Lambert. “The new stadium will be a wonderful place for alumni, parents, students and the community to meet and enjoy themselves. It will further strengthen the strong sense of community on our campus and solidify our arrival as one of the premier undergraduate institutions on the Eastern Seaboard.”
The new stadium is part of the Elon Vision, the college’s $80-million strategic plan to ensure excellence in the 21st century. The $40-million Campaign for the Elon Vision is in its final phase, completing fund raising for the new Dalton L. McMichael Sr. Science Center, which opened last fall, and the new library, which opens this summer.
To date, about $3.1 million has been raised for the stadium. An eight-member stadium campaign committee is headed by trustee Robert Ward, Burlington. Former coach Jerry Tolley, who led the football team to consecutive national titles in 1980 and 1981, is a major gift officer in the advancement office dedicated to the stadium campaign.
Elon’s football team currently plays in Burlington Memorial Stadium, which is located several miles from campus at Williams High School in Burlington. An on-campus stadium is a key step in the college’s transition from NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics to Division I-A. All the athletic teams except the football team will have full membership in the Big South Conference in August 1999. The football program will have a Division I-AA independent status.
In other action, the board named Gail M. Drew of Durham as the next board chair and and Noel L. Allen of Raleigh as vice chair. It also named the Rev. Dr.
G. Melvin Palmer of Greensboro as chair pro tem and Dr. Thomas E. Powell III of Burlington as secretary. They will begin their duties June 1.
The board also approved a $57.35 million budget for 1999-2000, which includes funding for 16 new faculty positions. Tuition, room and board and fees will increase 5.59 percent, the second smallest increase in the past decade. This should enable the college to maintain its position as one of the region’s “Best Value” colleges as rated in the annual U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges guide. Students will pay $12,671 in tuition, $4,551 in room and board and $225 in fees for the upcoming academic year.
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