New Director Rides Hot Seat at IAB

When some 50 students mounted the steps of the Indoor Athletic Building (IAB) on Sunday and ran into a pair of locked doors, they looked around the building for some notice explaining the situation. When no notice could be found, the weekend jocks began a search for the individual responsible for this surprising state of affairs.

The man now riding the hot seat around the IAB these days is Kevin McCall '76, director of facilities in the Department of Athletics. And while McCall never has been an unfamiliar figure around the department--his play on the lacrosse field raised many an eyebrow a few years ago--his name is now being mentioned for very different reasons.

McCall has instituted a series of changes in the operation of the IAB since taking over as director of facilities in July, and in defending his new policies, McCall points to the "non-system system" he inherited from his predecessor, former head football coach John Yoviscin. NEWS PROFILE

Besides shutting down the IAB on weekends until November, the tall, youthful-looking McCall has begun charging undergraduates and full-time graduate students $4 per person per hour for using the indoor tennis courts on weekday mornings at the Palmer Dixon facility.

McCall has also launched a "much stricter" monitoring policy in the IAB that requires all students--whether regular IAB visitors or not--to present their bursar's cards before entering the inner confines of the IAB.

In addition, he has discontinued free towel service to students using the IAB. But McCall said yesterday that "we will go back into towel service as soon as possible," and he estimates the resumption of towel service to be about three to four weeks away.

"The department has a bad reputation of trying to nickel-and-dime people," McCall said, adding that the issue has been "blown out of proportion."

McCall said the decision to shut down the IAB was linked to the opening of the Radcliffe Gym on weekends, adding that the Department of Athletics is paying Radcliffe for renting time at the Quad facility during the weekends.

Adronike R. Janus, assistant director of athletics, said yesterday that the department will pay Radcliffe $10,000 this year for use of the Radcliffe Gym on weekends.

McCall said "it will be a long time" before the department begins charging students for use of athletic facilities besides the indoor tennis courts.

In addition to his position as facilities director, McCall doubles as manager of the Palmer Dixon indoor tennis courts and as assistant varsity lacrosse coach.