While students were enjoying fall break and soaking up their time away from classes, project directors and construction workers began their 12-week project to remodel the multipurpose courts in Carmichael Gymnasium. 

Construction began on Oct. 9 and is projected to be completed by the beginning of the spring semester. 

Chloe Israel, a second-year studying computer science and an employee at Carmichael Gymnasium, said construction impacts many different groups of students who use the courts. 

“It definitely affects the most people who are going to come in and play sports, either for fun, for clubs, for intramural sports,” Israel said. “Especially intramural basketball, that’s super popular, and also people who take classes in that department.”

With six of the facility’s 11 indoor courts under construction, regular users of the multipurpose courts haven’t noticed differences in court availability, but a slight decrease in the number of users. 

“Not as many people come, which has kinda sucked a little bit,” Jalen Lindsey, a second-year studying civil engineering, said. “I think it can be nerve-wracking for everyone to come when everyone has to play on the same courts.”

Associate Director of Wellness and Recreation Jason Spivey said the Wellness and Recreation team has worked hard to stay ahead of issues, but with construction, there are always things that will come up. 

“Understanding we’re down six courts of the 11 courts we have total, so I know typically, between all the user groups we have using the multipurpose courts, it just gets crowded sometimes,” said Spivey. 

In trying to stay ahead of logistics, directors considered academic schedules while planning for changes.  

“What we were able to do with academic classes is, we worked through the spring semester to essentially front load all of the eight-week HES so that for the second eight weeks of the fall semester, we do not have any classes taking place in that space,” Spivey said.

Spivey said after construction is completed, students will see the quality of the construction. 

“It’s a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain,” Spivey said. 

Spivey said the team tries to be mindful and accommodating to all users of the multipurpose courts.

“For all of our court locations, we have a two-week schedule to show what courts are available, what courts are not and what’s on those courts,” Spivey said. “Again, just trying to keep users informed.”

Students can find more information on operating hours of the multipurpose courts and more on the Wellness and Recreation facility hours page.