Rarely does an entire town pick up and move 50 yards to the right.
But with the construction site for the new West Campus recreational facility subsuming much of its old turf, that is just what Krzyzewskiville will have to do this year.
Tom D'Armi, the athletic department's director of games operations and facilities, said he intends to transplant K-ville from the grass around the tennis courts to the opposite side of Cameron parking lot. The first tents will be moved into the woods along a new, lighted sidewalk leading from Towerview Drive to the Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy.
The proposed area will not be large enough to accommodate many tents, however, so officials will identify more space in November after the impact of construction becomes more clear, D'Armi said. He added that land around the Intramural Building might be used.
"I think we'll be able to work something out," he said, "because we've got to have Krzyzewskiville."
Three weeks ago, construction workers erected a site fence around much of Card Gym. The fence begins in the front of the building, eliminating 24 parking spaces and blocking off the lawn where tents one to about 50 normally sit. It then trails around to the IM building and, once summer tennis camps wrap up, will eventually block off four or five tennis courts.
Project manager Tom Hardin said the Towerview Drive side entrance to Card Gym will become the main entrance to the new facility, which will be completed in the fall of 1999. Depending on the entrance's eventual design-which is not yet completed-the K-ville move may be permanent, Hardin said.
The fenced-off parking area, he added, will be used for a triple-width trailer that will function as Card's weight room while the old room is renovated.
Sue Wasiolek, assistant vice president for student affairs, said she plans "to keep a watchful eye on the process to make sure the [K-ville] problem is addressed." In the past, she noted, the athletic department has placed a cap on the number of tents because of space constraints. She said she did not know if this number would change because of the new limitations.
Wasiolek added that safety has always been a major concern with K-ville and that separating some of the tents from the larger grouping would not be a wise idea.
"I know that there already were some issues concerning safety," she said, "and that will certainly be a major consideration in finding a new home for tent city."
Trinity senior Lino Marrero, Duke Student Government president, expressed concern about the situation.
"It's not going to be the same atmosphere," Marrero said. "We're going to have to work on finding new areas. The line monitors certainly are going to have a challenge ahead of them."
Students said they understand the need for the K-ville move but worry about its ramifications, namely the effects it could have on tenter solidarity.
"The power of K-ville lies within the spirit of the thousands of students involved, not the location," Trinity senior Nancy McKnight said. "However, I hope the tents won't be hidden behind trees in the woods. If that happens, less visitors and opposing teams will be awed at the sight of K-ville."
Trinity senior Yovanni Casablanca offered similar thoughts.
"The area with the lighted sidewalk is not only too small but too branchy and uneven to be able to house many tents.... We'd spill into the Terry Sanford parking lot most definitely," she said. "Another area of considerable size should be designated, but not so far away that it divides the 'ville in half. Definitely don't take away tenting, though. It's too much of a tradition and way too much fun."
Casablanca also said she is distressed that parking spaces are being eliminated particularly when parking on West is already a problematic situation.
Parking Services manager Chuck Landis said no provisions have been made to compensate for the displaced spaces.
"Based on last year's usage figures, people will be able to fit in existing spaces on West," Landis said.
In addition to the changes to the parking lot, K-ville and the weight room, the aquatic center locker rooms will close in the fall and will remain inaccessible for the duration of the construction, Hardin said. They will be expanded and fully remodeled in time for the facility's 1999 completion date.
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