Acorn

Drew University may be known as the university in the forest, but Simon Forum is more like a jungle. With so many people competing for Forum space and time, you�d think the courts were lined with gold. Scheduling events among varsity athletics, intramurals, club teams, and outside community users is a constant struggle.

Luckily, Athletic Facility Manager Tom Leanos has it down to a science. Leanos, who handles scheduling outdoors, works hand in hand with Assistant Director of Athletics Christa Racine, in charge of indoor scheduling, and Tremaine Young, Drew�s Director of Campus Recreation and Club Sports. Together with the Housing Conference and Hospitality office (HCH), the group decides who uses the Forum and when.

The only problem with the current formula is that not everyone is happy. Time and space constraints create a hierarchy of needs. Young explained the chain of command: varsity athletics receive top billing, followed by intramural activities, club sports, and finally outside community users. Unfortunately, grievances exist from the top to the bottom of the pyramid.

Leanos, also the men�s lacrosse coach, understands these Forum flaws. �February is the most difficult time for this building,� he said. Men�s and women�s basketball and fencing all need Forum space, and obtain top priority as performance-season sports. However, five other teams also compete for preseason practice space, including baseball, men�s and women�s lacrosse, softball and men�s tennis. Add to the varsity team�s clinics, dance classes, racquetball tournaments, swim meets and pick-up basketball games, not to mention concerts and lectures, and plotting activities in the Forum begins to resemble the job of an air-traffic controller.

�In a perfect world, every group would be able to go from 4 to 6 p.m., a good two hours every day,� Leanos said. �But we have limited facilities.� Leanos explained that when sports are forced to practice indoors, there is no choice but for each team to go only an hour and a half. In addition, to accommodate intramurals, varsity sports are reduced to two practice courts. This makes it hard to set up a diamond or lacrosse field. �That�s why we learn to share when we�re young kids,� Leanos said.

The solution for scheduling varsity athletics relies on a lottery system, in which coaches pick numbers which translate to practice times. Fencing takes the prime 4 to 6 p.m. slot, and the rest of the teams divvy up the remaining hours. This leaves four spots for five teams, meaning each team is forced to take an off-day during the week. Teams can practice from 6-9 a.m., and then from 6-7:30 p.m., 7:30-9 p.m., and 9-10:30 p.m. This causes strain on athletes, coaches, and the trainers.

�It�s hell on the trainers,� Leanos said. �They�re here sometimes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. � it�s a tough month for them.� Varsity athletes also must constantly adjust to different practice times.

However, potentially late nights leave no room for Drew�s club teams. The women�s ultimate frisbee team meets late in the Forum to get in their practices. Even then, by regulation they can only use one court. Sophomore Krishna Chavda explained, �It�s hard to do much on a single court for a sport that requires a lot of space.�

Men�s rugby faces the same problem, but is often reduced to the track outside the courts when they meet Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4-5:30 p.m. Junior Ben �Nordberg� Klayman explained the hardships facing his squad. �Since the semester started, only once did we get one court the whole time,� Klayman said. �Once, after bartering, we got half a court while fencing warmed up,� he continued. �Ninety-seven percent of the time, the only thing going on from 4 to 6 p.m. on campus is sports. But I don�t want to be seen complaining because these grievances have been common among the rugby team for at least four years.�

Probably even longer. According to Leanos, aside from scheduling time for students, Drew has been renting Forum space since the day the building was finished. The HCH schedules larger, Drew-related events such as concerts and the Forum Lecture Series, which draw crowds of a few hundred. HCH Conference and Events Coordinator Stephanie Traina explained that Admissions also uses the building for open houses and the Theological School holds annual Tipple Vosburgh lectures in the Baldwin Gymnasium. In addition, Traina schedules space for The New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble, a non-profit organization that trains young performers. HCH charges each outside organization an undisclosed rental fee to use the space. According to Traina, these funds go to a University facilities account which helps reduce the cost of tuition.

Renting the pool bolsters this account. Racine explained that Berkeley Aquatics uses the Drew pool most often, and that during the winter months, both the Madison and New Providence high schools swim their seasons at Drew. The squash courts also garner money for the same fund. The Pingry School usually rents the courts between 4 and 6 p.m. for its competitions.

Other events in the Forum, including clinics and track meets, aid the athletics budget. Varsity coaches arrange weekend clinics for community youth in order to fundraise for their training trips. According to Leanos, these clinics generally run prior to winter break until spring break. He also noted that neighboring counties use the facility during December and January for high school indoor track meets. Each varsity team is responsible for working one all-day track meet, and the money raised goes to the general athletics budget.

�We try to pick the down periods when we can,� Leanos said. However, even during these down times, parking becomes an issue in the Forum and Tilghman lots.

�Let�s face it, parking is an issue here all the time,� Leanos said. �That�s one of the reasons why we try to do everything during exam time. Generally, clinics are drop-offs, so most parents leave their kids and come back.�

Young also acknowledged the difficulty in Forum parking. �You�ve got traffic coming in from the Shakespeare Theater as well, not just groups using [the Forum]. I know we can�t go horizontally, but we can go vertically.�

Young reasons that a parking garage near Tilghman would pay for itself. He suggests Drew charge outside users to park in the facility, which would also offer more protection for vehicles.

Problems not withstanding, Leanos feels that the system is working better than ever this year. He credits Young with doing a great job. �I think people usually come in here in the afternoons expecting to play tennis or hoops, and they see all these people, and their immediate reaction is ahh,� Leanos said. �But that�s because there are no classes at 4 p.m. If they came in here two hours before that, they could do anything they wanted.�

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