The University of Rhode Island’s club track and field team was abruptly forced to change its practice schedule by campus recreation on Sept. 30, 2025, to a selection of times and dates that were deemed “unreasonable,” according to a document provided to The Cigar by the club.
According to the club, the first issue that arose with scheduling practice times came on Sept. 9, 2025. The club emailed Jill Blaney, the administrative assistant for campus recreation, asking to reserve space inside Mackal Field House for practices.
The club heard back two days later from Blaney, asking if they could move their practice start time an hour later to 7 p.m. The club complied with the request until Sept. 30, 2025, when they were abruptly told, “‘We can no longer accommodate your group at this facility,” according to the document provided to The Cigar.
The club was then given a list of alternative times that they could practice, but the dates consisted of early mornings, late nights and weekends.
“We were first offered those alternative times, which were just not realistic for our club team to practice during because of stuff like classes, work and commuting,” Club Secretary Christian Dahrooge said. “We tried to find some different workouts, like breaking into smaller groups during practice or only using certain lanes, and we weren’t really able to come to a workable solution.”
There were numerous factors, such as weather, intramural sports and Meade Stadium closing for construction, that led to the decision to change the club’s practice times, according to Jodi Hawkins, the director of campus recreation.
“The main reason for that was because of safety and liability reasons,” Hawkins said. “We have cheerleading practicing, all the basketball courts in play. When we lower the divider curtains, it takes up two or three of the lanes of the track. It’s just not feasible to have a large team come in and expect to have quality practice time when it’s not going to be a quality facility for them to practice.”
Membership has remained consistently around 12-18 members over the past few years, and there was no trouble in previous years with sharing space with the cheerleading team and intramurals, according to Dahrooge and Club President Ray Marsella.
“The number difference has not changed very much at all from last year to this year,” Marsella said. “It was a bit confusing that they started talking in September about how the size of our club was kind of a hazard to other athletes. We understand it’s a public facility, and we always give the right of way to other people if we see them.”
Hawkins believes that following spring break, more times will be open for groups like the club track and field team due to the weather being nicer and opening up more outdoor facilities for teams and intramural teams to use.
“We deal with a lot of groups right now, and they do have times that they can practice, but it’s not their ideal time,” Hawkins said. “None of the student groups that are coming in right now are getting their most ideal time, because we have to figure out an equitable and safe way to make it work for everybody.”
The club and campus recreation have had multiple email exchanges and in-person meetings as both parties continue to try to find a middle ground for practice times.
The club noted that due to the lack of practice as one team, it will be hard to send members of the team to competitions that began in March and end around mid-April.
There have also been concerns brought up by parents on Facebook that these practice issues are affecting students’ mental health, ability to make friends and dissuading prospective students from attending URI.
One bill, SS-25/26-42, and one referendum, SS-25/26-43, are passing through the URI student senate. The bill would move the oversight of all recognized club sports from the senate to the Club Sports and Intramural Council.
The referendum, which can be voted on on URInvolved, asks for students’ opinions on whether they would support a tax increase of $10 per student in the financial years of 2028 and 2029 to support the budget of the CSIC.
