Nestled in the basement of Reynolds Coliseum, a cage-like room reminiscent of an old woodshop is held together by zip ties and duct tape.

The room is home to the rifle team, where it only practices with air guns because the room doesn’t have the proper ventilation to use small-bore guns, which are used during competitions in addition to air rifles.

The facility, to say the least, is embarrassing. The team, which has had varsity classification since 1958, doesn’t even have enough equipment, so the athletes typically buy their own guns.

Imagine if a football player had to buy his own equipment.

We challenge any alumnus or donor to take a tour of the basement of Reynolds to see the neglect the rifle team is facing.

As a university that prides itself in its facilities – particularly its athletic facilities – the team’s practicing situation is flat-out unacceptable.

The team doesn’t want millions of dollars to build a major facility – its members are realistic, but it is unfortunate that the only help they can get excited about is a $3,000 grant from the National Rifle Association.

An extra would be the team’s equivalent to that of a Murphy Center or the Dail Basketball Center – both of which cost millions to construct.

Any contribution would make an impact.

These people don’t participate in their sport for the glitz or glam of being in the spotlight – they shoot rifles because it is their passion.

Keep in mind too, that these are varsity athletes, just like Philip Rivers was, just like Gavin Grant is.

And while they may not be superstars in the same regard, they still deserve similar respect.

Athletics Director Lee Fowler has done an outstanding job of bringing top-notch facilities to our campus, but there is no reason to neglect a facility, particularly when its renovation and improvement would leave a microscopic dent the budget of a land-grant university such as ours.

The rifle team may not be bringing in any significant revenue – but it still represents our University and it does it well. We should reward the team for that.

If athletics can’t get it done for whatever reason, then our alumni should step up – not because they love rifling, not because they want to bring in big revenues, but because they have pride in our University.