To better meet the competitive needs of a growing university, Adelphi President Dr. Robert Scott came before the Garden City board of trustees to request a special use permit to construct a performing arts building, which would be made available to the Garden City community, a sports complex with, among other amenities, one large gym, which could provide for indoor graduation ceremonies, an 8,000 square foot child activity center and a maintenance building and garage on campus.

Dr. Scott, who noted that Adelphi's vision is to be the leading private university in the region, assured the facilities upgrade is not intended to increase enrollment but rather enable the university to better serve the Garden City community and ensure satisfied students remain at Adelphi through graduation. Adelphi currently has an enrollment of 6,500 full-time equivalent students. If Adelphi obtains final site plan approval, these facilities will join a residential dorm erected back in 2001 and a fine arts and facilities building, now under construction and slated to open this September.

The fine arts and facilities building is an important linkage to the new facilities Adelphi is proposing, Dr. Scott noted. The new building will encompass sculpture and ceramics, which are now part of Olmsted Theatre. Adelphi hopes to expand Olmsted into that footprint left by the movement of sculpture and ceramics so as to move music and dance into the facility as an enlarged performing arts center. Moving music and dance into Olmsted will enable the university to free up Post Hall for additional academic uses, including classrooms and faculty offices. The new performing arts facility would add to the 325 seats in the theater and include 500 seats for music and 200 seats for dance.

The proposed child activity center would be greatly enhanced for the children of Garden City; approximately 50 percent of the families who use the facility reside in the village. This center also becomes a lab school for special education and early childhood education. In relation to the activity center, the university is proposing to build a new garage and maintenance building.

Woodruff Hall opened back in 1929 and since then Adelphi has not been able to host the NCAA regional championships for the men's and women's basketball teams because the space is just too small. Dr. Scott further noted that the building is overused. "We need to renovate it, principally for instruction and to create a new sports center connected to it; Woodruff on the north-south axis and the new sports center perpendicular on the east-west axis..." he said.

Adelphi is also proposing to move Stiles Field (soccer and lacrosse) just south of the sports center. In moving it, and to do what other universities have done, Dr. Scott hopes to dig down eight feet, have it elevated two feet and place a one-level visible parking structure below it for a net addition of 310 automobiles to park on campus.

This latest expansion proposal was better received than a 1993 proposal, which called for the construction of approximately eight or nine buildings that would have created a significant mass in the heart of campus. Jeff Forchelli, the attorney for Adelphi University, said the team tried to mitigate any negative aspects of the proposal to remain sensitive to its neighbors. A Brompton Road homeowner voiced concern that the new facilities, while professionally well done, will draw many more people to the residential area. Forchelli said improved north-south access through the campus would "hopefully" reduce traffic along Brompton, a goal of the traffic study performed.

Trustee John Mauk, who recently toured Adelphi's campus with Dr. Scott and staff, is confident the proposal as it moves through the various processes will become even better than it was presented. Former Mayor Richard Benack praised the project, noting that a possible 2012 Olympics in New York could bring team handball competition to Nassau County. "It is planned to be played in Nassau County and Adelphi has a very significant key on that sport at this particular time," he said. "It could bring more business to Garden City and make us a little more renowned." Benack believes the project would have a favorable impact on village residents and businesses alike. Dover Avenue resident Mort Yuder, who currently takes advantage of Adelphi's cultural offerings, believes it's a grand plan.

This proposal must go before several entities, including the village's Planning Commission and Architectural Design Review Board. The board of trustees ultimately can approve the proposal, approve it with conditions or deny it altogether. Dr. Scott intends to meet with the Estates Property Owners' Association in a few weeks, as he does yearly with all the village's property owners' associations, in order to, as he put it, "keep them briefed."

"We think of ourselves as the engaged university and believe in being a good neighbor. I invite the residents of Brompton Road and Cambridge Avenue to special receptions on campus and at my home in order to brief them but also make sure they participate in the cultural life of the university," Dr. Scott said.