EDITORIAL & OPINION: Time for recreational plan

As a building boom sweeps campus, recreational facilities remain an overlooked part of any truly complete plan. There is no doubt that the change is a positive one. Bower Field is more accessible to students; an upgraded baseball field meets a real need. But our greater concern is that the University's focus on the need for a campus-wide upgrade of recreational facilities does not peter out with this low-cost field swap. Penn's campus is badly lacking in places for students to play. And at a time when plans are afoot for large scale changes of almost every aspect of campus life, recreation has been strangely underemphasized. Clearly, Penn has higher priorities. But there are perhaps few areas that are more strikingly inadequate or more in need of a strong statement of long-term direction and purpose. We originally believed that the Brailsford report -- recommending the vast expansion of Gimbel and the construction of a fieldhouse -- would serve as the basis for the formulation of a recreational master plan. But there has been little administrative motion on either of those issues. The Katz Fitness Center, while warmly received, totalled only 7,500 of the almost 90,000 additional square feet the report recommended adding to Gimbel. And at the campus' eastern edge, there has been no public commitment to a fieldhouse facility for athletics. We recognize that the potential acquisition of the Post Office land makes definite planning difficult. But we would remind administrators that a fieldhouse is not simply another nice addition to campus -- it is a genuine and pressing need. Tuesday's plan will effect much-needed adjustments to existing facilities. But Penn's needs cannot be met by tinkering with current recreational spaces. To truly bring facilities up to par, Penn must commit and work toward a large-scale plan vastly increasing the amount of recreational square footage -- indoor and outdoor -- on this campus. We urge administrators to work from the Brailsford report toward a substantive recreational master plan -- no overhaul of other "campus living" facilities will be complete without it.