Kalamazoo College's plans for new athletic fields have been put on hold as residents of the Oakland-Winchell neighborhood protested the plans. According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, "Residents raised concerns about the lights, traffic, and reduced property values." Kalamazoo must get the athletic complex area rezoned which could take a few years.
After watching our Hornets defeat Alma and get off to a 3-1 start in league play on Saturday, I was looking at the plans for the field renovation in the Anderson Athletic Center, explaining to a sophomore baseball player why he most likely wouldn't be playing on the new fields while here at Kalamazoo. President Wilson-Oyelaran overheard me and came over to ensure me and my teammate that this rezoning process was only a setback and that the college would make the renovations happen. I found this very reassuring and was also happy to hear that the President of our college is standing behind the decision to renovate the fields the way she is.
I think there are a lot of faculty members, students, and residents in nearby neighborhoods that don't quite understand the impact these new facilities will have on them. Kalamazoo College claims in its mission statement to be a "nationally renowned" institution, mostly known for its tradition of academic excellence. As an athlete at the school, I am well aware that, other than tennis, swimming, and occasionally a soccer team, our school also has a tradition of losing in athletics. There are many factors that contribute to this. Part of the losing tradition can be attributed to the fact that the football, soccer, and baseball (softball) teams are playing on fields that aren't just of inferior quality to our competitors, but are flat out dangerous to play on. More importantly, however, I think the tradition is due in large part to the lack of support from a variety of people and especially the community.
As a member of these neighborhoods, how could you not want to see these fields (and ultimately the gymnasium and Natatorium renovated? These renovations are the first, and most important step, in turning the losing tradition of Kalamazoo College around. If you aren't an athlete at this school and you are wondering, "Why does it matter to me if we have good sports teams or not?" Can you imagine how much more "nationally renowned" our school would be if we were, say, the Stanford University of Division III? A perfect example is Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins is truly a "nationally renowned" college and it is because of their tradition of academic and athletic excellence. I don't have the statistics to prove it, but I am willing to be the overwhelming majority of adults living on the West Coast have heard of Johns Hopkins, but not Kalamazoo College. I can't imagine that improving the overall reputation of the college would decrease the property value of these nearby neighborhoods.
It is very disheartening as an athlete to hear that when we finally have gotten the plans to pass through the college, that members of our own community are the ones stopping us from leveling the playing field with our competition. Sorry for such a long post and thanks for putting up with my posts for the week!
Another huge factor in the "losing tradition" deals with recruitment. In order for these teams to be successful, they need to be able to recruit good athletes. I've heard that most coaches don't even take their recruits to the fields because they are too ashamed of them; and if recruits actually do see the fields, they likely instantly rank K College lower on their lists of potential schools and thus ultimately choose to attend our competitor’s schools that have much better intercollegiate athletic facilities. Varsity athletes amount to about 25% of the student body (I think), so clearly athletics play a vital role at our school.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the requested variance that was denied by the zoning board, I think the decision was absolutely ridiculous. I was actually at the zoning board meeting last Thursday, and there were probably over 40 people there from the surrounding neighborhoods. Their biggest complaint was about the lights. This I don’t understand. We had an engineer stand up and explain to everyone that there would be essentially zero light bleed (or .05 foot-candles with both the soccer and football fields illuminated) at K’s property line. I understand that the neighbors are upset with the negative externalities that might come along with the renovation of our fields; but, I don’t understand how the “glare” light issue that won’t even exist was strong enough to deter the board from approving our variance.
Also, another complaint was about declining property value. First of all, I would assume that every person in that neighborhood knew that they were moving into a home that was located near a college campus and near collegiate athletic fields; how could they not realize that eventually these collegiate fields (that appear worse than any high school fields that I’ve ever seen) would need to be renovated. I think that they have no right to complain about declining property value when they knew ahead of time that they were moving into a home close to collegiate athletic fields (ones that were built in the 40s at that).
Personally, I think that these neighbors are complaining for the sake of complaining. Most people do not like change and will do anything they can to stop it from happening. There was one comment from the peanut gallery that sat behind my friend and me the entire meeting (a neighbor, who was actually an alumnus and has a wife that was a varsity athlete at K) which I found particularly disturbing: he said that our school is being “so self-centered.” If anything, I think these neighborhoods are being selfish; they closed-mindedly see these field renovations as being detrimental to their own well-being (though with claims that lack credibility) without seeing all the possibilities that the fields can bring to not only K-College but to the City of Kalamazoo as a whole (e.g., to hotels and restaurants in the surrounding area). Even though these field renovations won’t affect me in any way whatsoever, I still strongly believe that our college deserves and needs them. It is reassuring to hear that President Wilson-Oyelaran and K-College are so determined to make these renovations happen.
I cannot say that the renovations won't help us a little bit, but I just believe that some of the other schools in our league are more focused on athletics than academics. Can you really blame our lack of consistent competition in all sports on the field we are playing on? Our school has not always been below average at sports. Since I play golf, we have been last 3 of the 4 years in our league when I played, but 40 years ago, we were by far the best team in the league. Golf cannot really blame the field for this. It would be nice to be known as the Stanford of DIII, but sometimes you just can't be good at everything.
ReplyDeleteSome things holding us back: We are primarily an academic school. Comparing our academics with other teams in the MIAA, it's not even close. I've known and played with prospects for golf that would have been starting for us as freshman and leading the team, but did not have the GPA to get in. It's tough to recruit athletes when facing such stingy requirements to get in to begin with. 2nd, we are very small too. I know some MIAA schools are like us, but do not limit who they accept due to grades. Other schools have 2-3x as many students as us, making them more likely to find better athletes and recruit them.
As for the neighbors, it is a little ridiculous that they are trying to stop this from happening. They should be supporting our school and the actions we need to improve our school. They are selfish if they continue to complain about our renovations.
I would argue your second paragraph, Brooks. A professor in the econ department gave the class I was in last quarter an entire presentation on how we haven't managed to differentiate ourselves from other good academic private schools such as Hope and Albion in the past few years. This schools have almost identical requirements for admission. The difference, as Kaitlin said, often comes down to a recruit seeing the field he/she would be playing on and asking himself why does it look worse than any high school field he played on or if it is actually even safe to compete on. It's true that we were good at certain sports 40 years ago, but a lot has changed since then....except our facilities. Times are different now. Athletes, even at the division III level don't want to be playing on a field that was built on top of a dump (literally, the soccer field). Years ago that kind of stuff didn't matter. The lack of support in renovating the fields reflects poorly on our athletic programs as a whole, which isn't fair.
ReplyDeleteI also think that this is not fair at all. I think that the community surrounding K College should not have the overriding say on what the school plans on doing to the campus. These excuses should not stop this project from getting started. I think that this new facility is exactly what K College needs to get their athletics up to par. As everyone has mentioned, our facilities for the most part are way outdated and directly influence the performance of our sports. I played basketball here my freshman and sophomore year, and I'll be honest, I stopped playing because I thought the basketball program here was terrible. Basketball used to be such a big part of my life, but I honestly lost my passion for the game because of K's basketball program. Even though sports should never be a reason for going to college, they are a huge commitment and a great way to grow as an individual. However, I felt that playing here was 5 steps back from my high school program, and that's just not right. New facilities, I believe would change the K College athletic reputation, increase high school recruits, and truly make Kalamazoo College "nationally renowned".
ReplyDeleteIt sounds from the arguments above that the college has bigger fish to fry in athletics than field renovations, but improved fields may be able to spark what the school needs.
ReplyDeleteWorking in the athletic office, I repeatedly hear one of the neighbor's biggest issues is that they lose their dog park...
Anyways, would improved facilities, increase neighborhood property values?
I'm wondering if Western had this much push back when it came to renovating their rec center, or football stadium, or baseball stadiums? All of which have lights. WMU's rec center, happens to be accross the street from K's fields, and I haven't heard too much griping about the increased traffic from a school with like 30,000 people in it. I have played on Angell field (a long time ago), and they weren't in good condition then. I bet if some of their kids went to K, then they would be all for it.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the President's Community Council as the StuComm/student representative and this was, obviously, an important topic of discussion. All the members of the council were really optimistic about the whole zoning board meeting so I was surprised to hear how it actually went. It was also brought up how K College is zoned as a multifamily/family residential zone and so K College needs all these approvals for any changes made that aren't part of the masterplan. WMU being a state entity does not have to go through with such procedures. When they want to be nice to the neighbors they can but when they don't want to then they don't have to! And the changing the zoning policy for K college will probably take a couple of years to do.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting point as to why the lights were closed off in the 80's was due to mechanical problems rather than any neighbor hood concerns and the lights were functional for a few decades before that! Seeing that an engineer explained that the lights will not have any significant spillover effects on the community, I am perplexed as to why they were so adamantly opposed to it!
I agree with the many who voiced their opinion towards the many positive externalities that such new facilities would bring! Best case scenario would result in more competitive sports teams, better recruiting in general, and an extremely sharp increase in value for the college. Sure neighbors in the area might have to put up with a little more light pollution than they're used to, but I can't imagine that would take too long to get used to and the positive exeternalities strongly outweigh the negatives in my opinion!
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