February 19, 1998
Contact: Beth Fox
(615) 343-3210
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February 19, 1998 Contact: Beth Fox (615) 343-3210 |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Vanderbilt's Outdoor Recreation Center has won the Indoor Facilities award in Athletic Management's 1998 Awards of Excellence program. The facility will be profiled in the February/March issue and will later be presented with an engraved plaque.
"We're excited for the project team and for the University," said Sam Hirt, director of campus recreation and the Student Recreation Center. "It's especially nice when the recognition comes from impartial folks. The award is a sort of play on words, but it's fitting because the center is really two parts in one."
The Awards of Excellence program honors those schools and individuals who go beyond what is normally expected of their administrative tasks, wrote Eleanor Frankel, editor-in-chief of Athletic Management, in a letter of official notice to Hirt. The Outdoor Recreation Center, which opened in 1997, "certainly fits this description in many ways . . . your new facility exemplifies what this award is all about," she wrote.
"It is probably the only facility of its kind in the country," said Mindy Dalgarn, associate dean of campus student services. "It really is unique and comprehensive."
The 3,060-square-foot facility replaced the rental area and equipment desk inside the Student Recreation Center. Because of increased participation in outdoor recreation, the desk had outgrown its space. The new Outdoor Recreation Center consists of a meeting room, checkout lobby and space to store and maintain the extensive variety of outdoor recreation rental equipment available to the Vanderbilt community. Registration for Student Recreation Center-sponsored trips also takes place in the building, which also serves as the departure and arrival site for trips, Dalgarn said. It was details like these that caught the attention of Athletic Management, according to Frankel's letter.
"The center is very unique in that there are so few quality outdoor rec centers; most of them are really indoor," Hirt said.
It was Hirt and Linda Rosenkranz, assistant director of campus recreation, who submitted the application last fall to Athletic Management. "More universities are starting to build similar facilities, but most are not detached buildings. Ours is really top quality," Hirt said. "And it really complements the Student Recreation Center."
The Student Recreation Center was recognized in 1992 by Athletic Business as a top-10 recreational facility, and by the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association as a top-10 Facility of Merit.
Hirt is especially excited about Athletic Management's upcoming profile because it will reach thousands of university athletic administrators and high school athletic directors throughout the country.
-VU-
Vanderbilt University is a private research university of approximately
5,900 undergraduates and 4,300 graduate and professional students. Founded
in 1873, the University comprises 10 schools, a public policy institute,
a distinguished medical center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center.
Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences,
education and human development, engineering and music, and a full range
of graduate and professional degrees.
For more news about Vanderbilt, visit the News and Public Affairs home page
on the Internet at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News.