By Marilyn Robles
Texas A&M-San Antonio students may begin intramural soccer and volleyball at Palo Alto College by Fall 2014.
The two institutions have begun developing an agreement for students to take part in Palo Alto’s intramural sports programs.
Laura Garza, Palo Alto campus recreation supervisor, said her college welcomes A&M-San Antonio to join their program. She said the college offers soccer and volleyball in the fall and flag football and volleyball in the spring. She plans to add two more sports each semester.
“We are ready,” Garza said, adding that the two institutions have talked and have begun to develop a formal written agreement, called a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Both institutions have begun drafting a memorandum detailing what they will do together, said Cheryl Le Gras, director of student activities.
“A memorandum of understanding would allow us to use some facilities at Palo Alto College,” Le Gras said. “Also, it allows our students to participate in any intramural sports that they already have.”
Approving the agreement begins with writing a usage plan for both campuses.
“It’s really just writing up the document and making sure it goes through all appropriate channels,” La Gras said. “That includes our president and anybody else who would have to approve it. The same thing on the college side, they would go through their president and then any of their trustees to approve.”
Le Gras said she does not know when they will reach a final agreement.
“We’re in the process of writing out our agreement and then now going through the appropriate protocol to ensure that it’s approved by the people that need to see it, including all the legal people,” Le Gras said. “It’s hard when you have a process that involves two different groups, and each group has their own process to go through. It’s hard for me to say a specific time frame at this point.”
A&M-San Antonio students can use the fields because Palo Alto’s student fees did not pay for them.
“The MOU can say those fields were already there, and paid with taxpayer dollars that was not provided by the rec fees,” Le Gras said.
Le Gras says A&M-San Antonio will provide money to pay for referees, jerseys, and equipment.
“Let’s say somebody has a game and we need the service of a referee, and it’s an intramural sport. They are paying a ref, but we are already using their facilities, so we would pay for some of that cost as well because our students will be playing,” Le Gras said
For now the money will come from general programming dollars housed within student activities, but not from student fees, she said.
