Point Loma Nazarene University recently revised a decades-long policy of allowing unrestricted public access to its track, and some alumni and neighbors want clarity on the private school’s new plan.
PLNU alum Jimmie Presley, who has been running on the university’s track since COVID, said he was informed recently that the school’s policy toward track use has changed. Presley said, after being confronted by a school official while using PLNU’s track, he was told, “You’re an alum, you can stay, we’ll include you with staff and faculty.”
New signage was posted on campus recently, which reads, “The athletic facilities are for the use of PLNU students, faculty, and staff only.”
Presley said: “I called the alumni office to see if alums were allowed to use it and they didn’t know either. So I asked the Athletic Department and they said, ‘OK, you can run here today. But you might be asked to leave.’”
A university spokesperson said allowing unrestricted access to PLNU’s track, which sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean and existed before the university moved from Pasadena to its current site (formerly Cal Western University) in 1973, is a more complicated issue than it seems at first blush.
“Unfortunately, outside businesses and private trainers were taking advantage of the track and interfering with our athletic team training, which is why we had to clarify that our students’ use takes priority,” said Lora Fleming, the university’s director of communications.
“PLNU’s Public Safety Department is not actively stopping individuals walking/running on the track who aren’t interfering with a university-sponsored activity. PLNU continues to be a campus that is open and hospitable to our neighbors and alum,” Fleming said.
A PLNU neighbor, Sue Cox, concurs with Presley believing PLNU’s track should be made available for responsible public use. “When I use the track it’s early in the morning,” she said. “I may see one or two other folks on the track or no one at all. Occasionally, I’ll see a coach arrive and open up the big shed. But I’m long gone before there is any team activity.
“I’m respectful of the campus and the track and would like to continue to use it on occasion. I’m hopeful that the university will allow its neighbors to continue using the track as we have for years,” Cox said.
“We’ve been good neighbors to PLNU, having students trick or treat, helping them out with scavenger hunts, dealing with parking, and occasionally dealing with their noise activity. We’ve never complained to the university. It’s just part of our neighborhood,” Cox said. “We’ve supported the music department and the baseball team by having coaches and players at our dining room table, paying them to give private lessons to our son back in his playing days.”
Presley doesn’t use PLNU track a great deal but added he is training for short races and has a coach. “I need a track to use,” he said adding, “The track is not busy all the time. There are a lot of times throughout the day when the track is not being used. People who live nearby, they say, ‘Why can’t we use the track when nobody else is using it?’”
Presley said it his understanding that UC San Diego in La Jolla allows running groups to apply for permits to use their track, adding legal issues, like liability for using a university track “can be worked out with the community to keep it open. [PLNU] needs to give the public a better answer – and explanation – than what they’ve given so far.”
