UO's Jaqua Center an exclusive academic palace
Photos by Rochelle Bargo and Lianna Davis/Wired Oregon
EUGENE — It’s been said you should never discuss politics, religion or sex at a dinner party. Add to that list: academics vs. athletics at the University of Oregon.
The John E. Jaqua Center for Student-Athletes rises as a glass temple on the east side of the university campus — and just like those other taboo dinner topics, the center is divisive, as Wired Oregon reporter Lianna Davis found out when she asked UO students what they thought of the new structure.
The root of the controversy stems from the estimated $10-$20 million price-tag for the 40,000-square-foot building that is predominately devoted to the 515 student-athletes who attend the university. While the ground-floor classrooms, lounge and study areas are open to the general student population, a majority of the building is closed to non-athletes.
The center is home to Services for Student-Athletes, which was previously housed in cramped and unflatttering quarters in Esslinger Hall. The SSA provides tutoring and other academic services to student-athletes affiliated with the university.
Nike chairman Phil Knight, a University of Oregon alum who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to the school’s athletic and academic programs, provided most of the funding for the Jaqua Center, which was built on land owned by the school, but leased to a company owned by Knight for $1.
The university spent approximately $850,000 on landscaping costs and upgrading the heating and cooling system for the building, and will be responsible for general upkeep.
The architecture of the Jaqua Center is modern minimalism, which is in stark contrast with many other buildings on campus but fits in with several other projects in the neighborhood, including the Matthew Knight Arena, which is under construction just down the street from the Jaqua Center, and the Wayne L. Morse Federal Courthouse just down Franklin Boulevard.
Steven Stolp, the executive director of SSA at the university called the Jaqua center the “Taj Mahal of academic facilities,” according to the Oregon Daily Emerald.
The Jaqua Center is “the most advanced learning center in Oregon, if not the whole country,” said Eugene Sandoval, a design partner at Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, a Portland firm that headed the design process.
The Taj Mahal “was not built for the public good, but rather at the whim of an emperor, as a grandiose and costly mausoleum for his favorite wife,” Associate Professor of Art History James Harper wrote in an Oregon Daily Emerald editorial. “As is now the case on East 13th Avenue, where access to the Jaqua Center will be restricted to a privileged caste of student-athletes, only a rarified elite got to fully enjoy Shah Jahan’s original complex.“
On the social networking website Facebook, a group of students at the university have created a group called “UO Students for Equal Access: NO to the John Jaqua Center.” At the time of publication, 722 students were members; more than can access the private levels of the building, the group states.
“The actions taken by the university and its associates have shown very clear preference for some without regard to everybody else paying tuition,” the group description reads.
The goal of the center is to inspire and give student-athletes the tools to perform better in the classroom, where in several sports UO has recently ranked in the lower tier of the Pac-10 Conference.
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