Clemson Trustees approve Academic and Athletic Plans

The Board of Trustees for Clemson University approved plans for several athletic facilities and academic programs in its quarterly meetings on campus last week, reports the Clemson University Media Relations Department. The trustees approved the phase one concept plan and funding of $160,000 from private gifts to begin design of a 13,000-square-foot operations complex for men’s and women’s NCAA soccer programs. Facility plans include locker rooms, offices, a student commons area, meeting and storage spaces and a sports medicine area. Total project cost is estimated to be $8 million funded with a mixture of athletic facility revenue bonds, athletic operating revenues and private donations. In addition, the board approved phase two plans, including $13 million, to construct a complex for the new softball program, with play slated to begin in 2020. The complex will include a NCAA standard playing field; stadium seating for 1,000; a press box; and a 10,000-square-foot operations facility with locker rooms, team meeting and lounge space. The project will be funded with $6.5 million in athletic facility revenue bonds and $6.5 million in athletic operating revenues and gifts. The trustees also approved a resolution for the issuance and sale of a series of athletic facility revenue bonds, not to exceed $7 million, for the softball complex, which will be located near the university’s baseball complex. In academics, the board approved a new center: the Hayek Center for Business Prosperity, funded by a private gift and named for Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek. The trustees also gave the nod to a new, additional site location of the Charleston Design Center for the master in real estate development program and for the master in city and regional planning program, effective in summer 2019.