Only after Campus Recreation Services failed to find a corporate donor to fund CRC naming rights and a longtime university donor threatened to stop giving to the university did the CRC come to bear Geary Eppley’s name, officials said.
The renaming led to the creation of the Geary F. Eppley Fund for the Enhancement of the Student Experience, which has yet to garner any funding. But university officials initiated a fundraising drive over the weekend, which they said they hope will raise $2 million for future Campus Recreation Service construction projects and programming through the Eppley fund.
Since the Campus Recreation Center’s construction, university officials had unsuccessfully attempted to find a corporate donor who would fund the CRS and receive naming rights to the building, according to former Terrapin Club president Ed Downey.
At the same time, the Eppley Planning Committee, which consists of alumni and current officials, were attempting to dedicate a university building in the former dean and Athletics Directors’ honor. They wanted the Adele H. Stamp Student Union to bear Eppley’s name because he organized the union’s initial creation, but they were unable to convince the university, said Downey, the committee’s chair.
“Over the passage of time since we missed naming something for him, it was pushed to the back burner,” Downey said. “A lot of the people who knew him and had memories of him are becoming fewer and fewer. If we didn’t have something named after him, there would be no one to champion his cause.”
But the university did not appease the committee until a major university donor who serves on the committee, and whose name was not disclosed, threatened to stop giving donations. In response, the university created the Eppley fund and awarded Eppley naming rights, said former Alumni Association president Ellie Fields, a member of the planning committee.
Though student service fees that help fund the CRS have increased within the past year to accommodate for rising energy costs, the department will need more money to fulfill plans such as building a small gym and basketball courts on South Campus, said CRS Director Jay Gilchrist.
Both South Campus, especially near South Campus Commons, and the area around the Leonardtown apartments have an obvious lack of outdoor facilities, such as LaPlata Beach’s volleyball courts – a shortage Gilchrist said he would like to see remedied under the Eppley fund.
Contact reporter Ben Block at blockdbk@gmail.com.
