South Dakota State University’s athletic director called the recent trend of student attendance at athletic events “awesome” and answered questions from senators on potential new construction projects.

“Student demand has gone way up, which is awesome,” said Justin Sell, in his 17th year leading the athletic department. “We need you at everything; it’s the energy in the building.”

One project senators asked about was a new soccer facility on campus. The team currently plays at the Fishback Soccer Stadium on the South side of Brookings, about three miles away from campus.

“We’ve been working on it probably for five years, at least,” Sell said. “I think it needs to be on campus.”

Funding for all SDSU athletic facility projects have been privately raised, or through a bond in the case of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, Sell said.

“Soccer has to kind of behave the same way,” he said. “When we put in turf for softball and baseball last spring, those were donor-driven, we got donations to do that.”

Sell remains encouraged that the soccer facility will be completed. They have a design and cost, but need a lead gift to kick the project off.

“We do that, then it will move pretty quick, because it’s not as complex as the arena or the stadium or the indoor facility,” Sell said. “We could get that fairly quickly if we can get the lead donor.”

Sell also said getting a larger scoreboard on the north end of the Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium will potentially be part of a larger update to the stadium.

A project that’s in talks would add an equipment room to Dykhouse Stadium, with an academic center above it, jutting out toward the round-a-bout. The project would also look to update the football locker room.

“That screen or video board would probably be part of that project and then part of that fundraising piece,” Sell said. “So, we’d have to find a funding source.”

In other news at Monday’s meeting:

Senators passed a resolution to create a temporary task force to review and address accessibility for students with physical disabilities.

SDSU student Megan Rezac brought accessibility concerns to the Students’ Association during open forum. Rezac, a senior communication studies major, brought up many points of inaccessibility on the SDSU campus with the Senate.

Retention rates for disabled students are generally lower than rates for students who are not disabled, Rezac said.

“Disabled students often face numerous more barriers than the fellow students in their grade when trying to achieve the same result in their academics,” Rezac said. “I am a disabled student here at SDSU. I have experienced a lot of barriers here to getting my education, such as inaccessibility, not just in classrooms, but in materials for classes.”

Sen. McKenzie Duncan was a prime sponsor of the resolution.

“Megan has done a lot of research into this subject,” Duncan said. “My purpose in creating this resolution is to see our Senate body respond to an individual and a cause like this with positive action.”