Diorka brings enthusiasm to Recreation Dept.

Recreation Director Mike Diorka's answering machine message -- "please leave a message at the beep" -- is like any other. Until you get to the end. "Thank you and have a safe and health-filled day!" he chimes. But his message merely reflects his enthusiasm for his job. And Diorka -- indeed, the entire Recreation Department -- is most enthusiastic about the prospect of building a modern recreation arena, one that would replace the University's current hodgepodge of dilapidated and inadequate facilities. What Diorka is able to do depends on what the consulting group Brailsford and Dunlavey recommends. May 30, the firm will report to the president and provost on whether the University should build a new arena dedicated to recreation. But Diorka has been down this road before. In fact, he oversaw the construction of an $11 million arena -- the Reily Student Recreation Center -- while working at Tulane University, prior to coming to Penn. Once Reily was built, "It made people feel real neat that they were in a happening place [at Tulane]," Diorka said. When completed in 1989, The New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote that "Tulane has obtained a first-rate leisure facility that not only enhances the campus but promises to improve the lives of its many users." To help defray Reily's costs, students voted to tax themselves -- $240 for construction, and a smaller, yearly fee for annual expenses. At Tulane, the student fee increases by 10 percent every four years to compensate for rising power costs and inflation. The rest of the construction costs were met by alumni donations, private bonds and corporate donations. The current $90 student fee is automatically assessed in the tuition bills of full-time students. "We get about two people a year who realize it's on their bill and never use [the facility] and want their money back," Reily Membership Administrator Ashley Wagner said. "We can't do much about it," because the fee is mandatory. Between the student fee and income from community and alumni memberships, Reily supports itself. "We're competitive with other health club memberships," Wagner said, adding that because the surrounding area is "posh," Reily can undercut "pricey" competitors. Reily charges $475 for a one-year community membership. By comparison, the Hutchinson Gymnasium fitness center charges $190 to community members and $120 for students. University City Nautilus charges $479 per year. Diorka stresses the high priority Reily gives to recreation, as opposed to intercollegiate athletics. Wagner agrees -- to a point. "Athletics has their own little gym [in Reily]," she said, adding that other intercollegiate athletic facilities are located outside Reily. But Wagner thinks Diorka's claim that recreation is the "number one priority" at Tulane is biased. "[Diorka] was immersed in [recreation] every day," she said. Both agree that Reily is one of the most popular tour sites for prospective students. "I think it's a big sell for prospective students," Wagner said, adding that many visitors specifically name Reily as a must-see. The prospects for Penn's own "must-see" gym hinge, in part, on Brailsford and Dunlavey's recommendations. "Once we get real data to work with, then we'll be able to recommend pros and cons," Paul Brailsford said. "As a rule of thumb, it's much easier to have one facility, because you eliminate redundant staff." Brailsford added that the cost of a Penn facility is hard to estimate, since "every university has a different quality standard." He guessed that a Penn facility would cost much more than Tulane's, but less than the $80 to $100 million typically required for arenas at large state universities.

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