Not many students knew about or even used the Maury Hall shooting range, where ROTC students and Pistol and Rifle Club members could practice firing guns, and now many never will get the chance.
Now that the range has closed, some students in the club fear their little-known University tradition may collapse without room to practice.
An Oct. 25 letter from the Provost's Office announced that the range, constructed in the 1940s, would be shut down for good, after having closed temporarily in September.
The events leading up to the decision to close the range permanently began late last spring after the Environmental Health and Safety office conducted a routine inspection.
Paul Benneche, coach of the Pistol and Rifle Club, said during the inspection the office "noticed an extension cord where it shouldn't have been for lights."
Benneche installed the cord somewhere between six and eight years ago, but this marked the first time the issue of fire safety was raised.
The report "started creating a lot of waves," Benneche said. "The Navy ROTC, which has nominal oversight of the range, decided to no longer be the administrative overseers."
Soon the University Provost's Office got involved in the matter, consulting with various legal groups and the Office of Risk Management, all of whom emphasized what they saw as liability issues. Besides the misplaced extension cord, other concerns included poor facility ventilation and high lead levels because of bullets being fired in a closed space.
Assoc. Provost for Management Katherine Reed said as her office continued to research the issues involved with the range, they discovered what they considered to be the range's fatal flaw.
Reed said while at one time the Navy ROTC required use of the range for their programs, revisions to the program made use of the range no longer necessary.
"We make academic program needs our priority, and in this case that [academic] need was no longer there," she said.
But Benneche said the main factor left out of this equation was the needs of a student organization, the Virginia Rifle and Pistol Club, which regularly uses the range to practice in preparation for upcoming competitions.
The administration sent a letter to Benneche suggesting alternative locations where the club could practice. Suggestions included traveling to police shooting fields or a local gun club where Benneche is a member.
But Benneche said while finding another range is a possibility, transportation and set-up factors practically would double the two-hour practice time.
"While [the club's] range is larger [than the Maury range], weather and transportation concerns and other logistics would overwhelm the student leaders and myself," he said.
After realizing that any hope of keeping the range open was lost, Benneche said the club focused its attention on securing permanent storage space in the basement of Maury. The organization owns and stores close to 50 Olympic-style firearms, including both rifles and pistols, in vaults at the range.
Despite closing the range, the administration, under the direction of Reed and others, recently has agreed to grant the group the necessary storage space as requested.
"We tried to make this as open and thoughtful of a process as possible," Reed said.
She said Benneche and students actively involved in the club were consulted throughout the decision-making process.
However, student leaders of the Pistol and Rifle Club said they feel the entire decision making process did not take into consideration the needs of the student body.
James Athas, third-year College student and Pistol and Rifle Club vice president and treasurer, said students' time constraints prevented them from acting against a shut down.
"The administration asking for closure on the matter [of closing the range] after the first few weeks of school was a lot for us to handle," Athas said. "We had the pressure of classes getting started, and we didn't have as much time to deal with the issue as the administration."
He said closing the range and the possibility of losing storage space was a complicated situation, especially because the club had to comply with federal, state and local laws regarding the movement of firearms.
"We felt ignored because we don't feel that the administration understood the unique nature of our activity," he added. "By closing the range, the administration might be killing the club."
The issue shutting down the range in reality only affects a handful of students. The club, based on limited supplies and space, is limited to a 30 to 40 student maximum membership. For such a comparatively small organization, the range's 2,000 square foot area of space marked the only piece of University property used solely by a club sport.
The club is now one of four collegiate shooting clubs nationwide without access to an on-campus shooting facility, Benneche said.
While the Rifle and Pistol Club may be confined in membership, the scope of their accomplishments is not limited. According to the team's Web site, the club's 40-year history includes earning "two national collegiate champion teams, nine national individual collegiate champions, and 14 individuals who have won a total of 25 All-American awards."
"The administration had to consider if there is a value to the individual student to have shooting facilities," Benneche said. "Unfortunately, the range will not be available for generations of students to come."
Reed said now that the range is being shut down, the space will be used as a staging area for a sprinkler-installation project scheduled to take place at Maury over Winter Break and as a storage space for a Clark Hall renovation project during the spring. As far as permanent plans are concerned, she said the administration has not begun to consider possible options.
"I can see a line forming the second I make a call for suggestions about how to use the space," she added.
While the space most likely will be used in a manner to benefit another segment of the University community, members of the club said closing the range causes the University to lose an important aspect of its diverse facilities.
"If U.Va. is supposed to be a wealth of opportunities, this entire episode is an example of another opportunity lost," Athas said.
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