Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Brittany Hine (right) makes a putt as Radford University women's golf coach Jeff Beeler watches in the Dedmon Center. The university's golf teams are using a former racquetball court as an off-season practice room.

Ciara Hayes, a member of the Highlanders women's basketball team, studies for a criminal justice course in the Dedmon Center's Learning Enhancement Center. The center was created in a former racquetball court.

RADFORD -- The two-month debate about which Radford University students should have access to the renovated Dedmon Center seemed to shift Thursday at an open forum held by administrators.

About 40 people, including students, faculty and staff, attended the meeting Thursday in the Bonnie Hurlburt Student Center auditorium.

There, Vice President of Student Affairs Norleen Pomerantz and Athletic Director Robert Lineburg emphasized the importance of dedicated facilities for student-athletes as a way to bolster the university's image. They also confronted criticisms of the plan to close the center to the general student body.

The goal of the renovations was "never to create a luxury fitness center," Pomerantz said. "There is actually nothing there for students to use."

All fitness machines from Dedmon were moved to rooms in Peters and Muse halls, she said, where "we believe students have fairly decent fitness opportunities."

The Dedmon Center was closed from April 2008 to January for a $15.78 million renovation. Some of the school's 9,000 students are angry that Radford's fewer than 300 student-athletes now have the center to themselves as a dedicated training facility.

The main exception is Dedmon's pool, which is open to students and the general public for 59 hours each week -- the hours outside the university's swim team's practice schedule.

Pomerantz and Lineburg also touted the planned construction of a fitness center somewhere on campus to serve the rest of Radford's students. Officials plan to open that new center by early 2011.

"That's a fast pace," Pomerantz said.

Lineburg stressed the positive attention brought to the university last week when the men's basketball team played in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Highlanders lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels 101-58. He called establishing Dedmon as a dedicated training facility "crucial" to developing a top-class Division 1 athletic program to bring more attention to the school.

And those in attendance seemed to go along with the plan. Rather than question why the university spent those millions on facilities for 285 student-athletes, comments instead focused on what could be done to improve facilities in Muse and Peters halls that serve the rest of the campus.

Several students complained that those facilities are often overcrowded and that Muse even lacks changing rooms for users.

"Muse is very packed most of the time," said media studies sophomore Michael Andrews.

Mary Ferrari, a faculty member in the history department, complained that changes in open hours of the facilities during student breaks make it hard for faculty and staff to exercise -- an irony, Ferrari pointed out, as Gov. Tim Kaine's administration promotes exercise for state workers to reduce health care costs.

"Faculty took a big hit, too, when Dedmon closed," Ferrari said.

Pomerantz also announced that starting Monday, a room in Muse previously used as a study hall by student-athletes would be converted to a new free weight room for all students.

That upgrade, she said, would create "more fitness opportunities on campus than ever before."

Still, some students said they walked away from the meeting frustrated.

"I'm glad they had it and I got to say my piece," Andrews said. "But I felt like she [Pomerantz] doesn't really have a good feeling for what the students want."