Issue 168 - Purchase College

By Tony Cella
Staff Writer
Ne w Tu r f Fi e l d Ge t s t h e St a r Tr e at m e n t
Bo w l i n g Al l e y g e t s a Gu t t e r Ba l l
At the unveiling of the new Astroturf soccer
and football field, Ernie Palmieri, Director of
Athletics, said that despite rumors to the contrary
there are no current plans for a football team.
The soccer and lacrosse teams will use the
field, Palmieri said, and the football goals were
put in so the field can have intramural games and
so it can be rented out to local football teams.
He said the proceeds from the rentals will go to
the upkeep of the field. According to the Athletic
Department, the complex took five years and
nearly $2 million to build.
Many students are displeased with the field
and don’t think it fits in with the environment of
Purchase. Even without a football team, they think
that allocating more funds to athletics could be a
sign of future policies and a more sports-centric
Purchase campus.
The new field has a scoreboard with a game
clock, Astroturf – of course -, bleachers, football
uprights and yard markers, and permanent lines
for various sports. As the dedication ceremony
drew near, the bleachers were sparsely filled with
just the women’s soccer team. But as the time for
the ribbon cutting came closer their family and
friends filed in. Eventually the cross-country team
joined as well. The ribbon-cutting was for their
new “X-Country Trail”, an outdoor cross-country
path that goes through the forest.
Before the game I talked to a soccer player
Kayla Garner, a junior psychology major. She
stood with her teammates at the fence separating
the stands from the field. She was wearing the
Purchase Panthers’ soccer uniform: all white
besides “Panthers” written in blue text across the
front. Her hair was tied back in a pony-tail.
She said she prefers grass fields but that “the
field and the facilities around it are much nicer
than anything we’ve had in the past. “It did cost a
lot of money but I think it was definitely worth it.”
I sat in the stands next to the press box,
paid for by FC Westchester a local soccer team,
and listened to Palmieri, President Schwarz and
Damian Fernandez, the Provost, speak. Then the
cross country and women’s soccer teams stood
on either side of President Schwarz holding the
ribbon. He and Palmieri cut it with standard-sized
scissors.
Palmieri knocking the pins
Later I caught up with Palmieri. We stood on
the sidelines as the women’s soccer team warmed
up for their game against Husson college. After
clarifying a few points about his speech at the
ribbon cutting, I asked him about one of Purchase’s
best kept secrets: the bowling alley.
Hidden in the nether world of the Purchase’s
gym, the bowling alley has fallen into disrepair
since it’s construction in the 1970s, while the
Astroturf complex got the star treatment with a
$1.8 million initial cost, and the pool has had close
to $100,000 in repairs.
Nowadays, he said, the bowling alley is only
used for special
events. They’ve,
“had to stop
programs in order
to wait for a repair
guy,” according to
Palmieri.
Right now,
“they’re thinking
about replacing
the bowling alley
and expanding the
Fitness Center.”
Palmieri is in favor
of expanding the
Fitness Center
because it’s too
small and there
are long waits to
use the equipment.
He’d talked to the
I n t e rc o l l e g i a t e
Athletics Board (ICAB) and the Student Athlete-
Advisory Committee (SAAC) who said they were
in favor of the deal. An improved gym facility
would help recruit student-athletes, he said.
Later I talked to President of SAAC Lauren
Raia, senior literature major. She supports the
expansion and thinks it will benefit the campus.
“We wish we could afford to fix the bowling alley,”
she said. “But with the influx of the new student
population, we decided that it’d better to have
more workout machines in the cardio room.”
Albana Krasniqi, Assistant Athletics Facilities
Manager, watched me interview Raia and
recommended I talk to Chris Bisignano, the
Associate Director of Athletics and Operations.
She pointed him out across the field. He had taken
a knee behind a soccer goal and was rearranging
tiles of Astroturf.
Bisiganano said they want to remove the
bowling alley but nothing’s happened yet. “They’re
just not functional anymore plus the demand for
bowling is not what it was back in 1970.” He said
there’s more demand for cardio, weight lifting and
dance studio space.
Student Opinion
Adam McHeffey, junior Liberal Arts major,
was almost finished cleaning the Co-Op. All that
was left was to clean out the refrigerator. Only
problem was somehow the fridge had lost power
during the summer and all the food inside of it
had rotted. Packaged food floated in a rancid
smelling brown liquid that filled the bottom of the
refrigerator.
He and Howie Waldstein, sophomore New
Media major, took a break to talk to me. McHeffey,
with black paint on his hands, said that he liked the
idea of a bowling alley. “It’d be a great part-time
hobby,” he said. Waldstein agreed but said that
was just his opinion. “A functioning dance studio
would probably be put to better use,” he said. “But
I also think it would be pretty interesting to have
an active bowling alley. I think it has potential.”
Some students said the Athletic Department
should invest in the bowling alley, like the “turf
complex,” and rent it out. Some gave this example:
Purchase offers swim lessons for local children in
the pool; maybe some of them would like to have
birthday parties or hit some pins in Purchase’s
lanes? Many students believe that the bowling
alley fits the Purchase community more than a
soccer field and said they’d use the bowling alley
more if it was open to them.
the Ice Caps melting, meteors becoming crashed into us *Pow*, the Ozone layer leaving *FU* and the Sun exploding *Shit Shit!*,
CAMPUS 3
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