CLEMSON — Clemson University’s board of trustees approved plans for several athletic facilities and academic programs in its quarterly meetings on campus this week.

The trustees approved:

*** the phase one concept plan — and funding of $160,000 from private gifts — to begin design of a 13,000-square-foot operations complex for men’s and women’s NCAA soccer programs. Facility plans include locker rooms, offices, a student commons area, meeting and storage spaces and a sports medicine area. Total project cost is estimated to be $8 million funded with a mixture of athletic facility revenue bonds, athletic operating revenues and private donations

 

*** phase two plans, including $13 million, to construct a complex for the new softball program, with play slated to begin in 2020. The complex will include a NCAA standard playing field; stadium seating for 1,000; a press box; and a 10,000-square-foot operations facility with locker rooms, team meeting and lounge space. The project will be funded with $6.5 million in athletic facility revenue bonds and $6.5 million in athletic operating revenues and gifts.

 

The trustees also approved a resolution for the issuance and sale of a series of athletic facility revenue bonds, not to exceed $7 million, for the softball complex, which will be located near the university’s baseball complex.

In academics, the board approved a new center: the Hayek Center for Business Prosperity, funded by a private gift and named for Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek.

The trustees also gave the nod to a new, additional site location of the Charleston Design Center for the master in real estate development program and for the master in city and regional planning program, effective in