The practice field located next to the commuter rail is now being used as a parking lot for construction vehicles, which has caused an irreversible loss of about $19,000 that was spent to irrigate the field over the summer, according to Jacob Bockelmann '09, a board member of the Club Sports Council.Bockelmann said that last year the Club Sports Council decided to use rollover Student Activities Fee funds allocated to the Club Sports Council by the Finance Board to renovate the practice field next to the train station that club sports has used for practice for years.

Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa said in an e-mail to the Justice, "At the end of last semester, when there was funding remaining in the Club Sports budget, the Club Sports Council and The [F-Board] agreed to reinvest the funds into the Club Sports Program. The Council identified two projects, improvements to the practice field, as it has been used almost exclusively by club teams, and the addition of matting to one of the rooms in the Linsey building that is used by the martial arts clubs."

Bockelmann shared an e-mail with the Justice that he received June 11 from Club Sports Coordinator Ben White. In the e-mail, White wrote, "I had plans to install irrigation and sod on our practice field. The irrigation was mostly installed [June 10] (At the cost of roughly $19,000). During the installation process I learned that the University would be taking the practice field away from the department and turning it into a parking lot. At this point, we've been told that the change is temporary and the field will be returned to us within a year or two-ideally with sod and irrigation."

In an e-mail to the Justice, Sousa wrote, "When we were informed of the need to temporarily reallocate the practice field for parking, some funds had already been expended to improve the field. The University has promised to finish the intended field improvements at the time when the field is no longer needed for parking. The field improvements will happen; they have been simply delayed." Sousa did not respond to a question sent by e-mail regarding the exact amount of funds that were spent.

Vice President of Campus Operations Mark Collins said, "There may have been a plan, but it was abandoned before the field was transformed into a parking lot or as the decision was made."

He later acknowledged by e-mail, "The field, including any damaged irrigation system, will be restored to its original condition when it is no longer needed for parking."

Collins explained that the reason the practice field was converted into a parking lot was that the University would have had to pay $5,000 to $10,000 for off-campus parking for construction vehicles, which "was just not reasonable."

He added, "No one likes to lose the practice field, but it was deemed necessary to save that money. We made sure to make provisions for the clubs to use Chapels Field this year. We will eventually restore this field; it needed to be restored anyway."

Bockelmann insisted that the practice field renovation project had been completed. He said, "$19,000 dollars was spent on renovating that space. It was completely resodded; there was an irrigation system installed. It was really going to be a nice, beautiful space."

Bockelmann shared the chain of e-mails sent between himself and White in response to White's June 11 e-mail. Bockelmann asked White in one of the e-mails, "Will the $19,000 infrastructure you had installed be flushed down the drain once the parking lot is built or will we be able to reclaim it when the field becomes a field again?"

In White's e-mail response, he wrote, "At the very least, a significant portion of that $19,000 will go to waste in the sense that the work will be damaged beyond repair." He also wrote, "Yes, we'll be paying twice for the same work, but chances are that if I hadn't just put in irrigation, we might not get it when we get the field back."

According to Collins, Sousa and Bockelmann, the University has indeed pledged that it will restore the field to at least its present condition once the field is no longer needed for construction vehicle parking.

Collins wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, "The University's capital budget will fund the restoration and [the Office of Campus Operations] will oversee the work."

"That's nice and great the University is going to do that, but I'm still really upset that the money was wasted and just squandered like that," Bockelmann said.

He added, "The problem in my mind is how it's possible that it could have been approved within Athletics to spend $19,000 on a project if someone knew it would be destroyed later. There was a very obvious misconnect, or at the very least a severe miscommunication within Athletics and the University at large that allowed this to happen."

In an e-mail to the Justice, however, Sousa wrote, "There was communication between all parties involved in a timely manner as soon as information was available and I've heard no complaints from council members."

Nirja Parekh '09, another member of the Club Sports Council who voted on the field improvements, echoed Bockelmann's disappointment. She said she wondered why converting the area into a parking lot was the "absolute decision" and said she wished there was "more of an explanation [about this decision] so [everyone] was on the same page."

Sousa also wrote, "From what I'm hearing from club leaders, they are excited to be using Chapels Field as the University did a great job renovating it [in summer 2007].