By Amanda Lee Anderson
Construction begins on Cardinal Hall, formerly Fourth Street lot
Construction began several weeks ago in the Fourth Street Parking Lot on Cardinal Hall, a $4.5 million new residence hall built to house thirty-five students, twelve of whom will be athletes. The facilities will include a two-story, 32,500 square foot building with a computer lab and study area. They will rise between Bettie Johnson Hall and the new upperclass hall, also in construction now, and will eliminate over one hundred parking spaces.
At the July 20 Board of Trustees meeting, the trustees approved the proposal to build the Cardinal Hall facility. The only objector was trustee Virginia Brown, who was concerned that the facility would only serve men’s athletics, leaving U of L’s female athletes out. In response, U of L athletic director Tom Jurich said, “We’ve probably put more money into Title IX [a law requiring equal funding for men’s and women’s sports in schools and universities] than any other school in the country.” Other trustees expressed concern that this would simply be “another Wildcat Lodge”, and that it simply would be a source of negative media publicity and problems with NCAA guidelines.
The NCAA guidelines for athletics dormitories state that no more than half the residents in any hall may be scholarship athletes. In order to comply with the rule, the Athletics and Housing and Residence Life departments are opening up seventeen spaces within Cardinal Hall to non-scholarship athletes, or non-athletes.
U of L will lease the Fourth Street land to a private developing contractor, similar to the one who built Bettie Johnson Hall and will be working on the new upperclass residence hall. Housing and athletics representatives will retain control over all phases of the planning and design of the facility. The university will operate the facility and oversee contract management, ensuring that the beds will be full twelve months per year. Then U of L will receive rent on the residence hall rooms, and pay the net profits to the developer as a means of paying off the service and repair costs of maintaining the building. After twenty years, the developer will donate the facility to the University, free of any outstanding service debt.
An unnamed donor pledged an undisclosed amount to help finance the construction. The only money that the Athletics Department is required to provide is to cover the cost of the hall’s furnishings, about $1 million, and to pay the rent yearly on the residence hall rooms to the private developer.
The idea of Cardinal Hall was originally proposed earlier this year when Louisville mayor Dave Armstrong sought to build a basketball arena in downtown Louisville. In return for joining with the Charlotte Hornets franchise, the city would issue $15 million in bonds, which was to be used for the completion of the Cardinal Park athletic facility and for the construction for a residence hall for the basketball team. However, this plan was abandoned when the franchise owners chose to move the team to New Orleans instead of Louisville.
Acting President Carol Garrison said that the construction of this hall is part of the University’s efforts to increase on-campus living space. Jurich described this new facility as “providing a better study environment for the athletes. It will be a really positive way to upgrade the basketball program here at U of L.” Cardinal Hall is projected to open for occupancy in Spring 2003.
