Robert L. Carothers is completing an 18-year term as president at the University of Rhode Island. Carothers has been involved in the athletic program as much as any university president in recent years.

This story is the fourth of six on Carothers’ impact on the URI athletic program.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN –– As he completes his 18-year run as president of the University of Rhode Island, Robert L. Carothers has settled most of the major issues facing the school’s athletic department.

 But there is at least one major exception. That is the proposed Student-Athlete Development Center. It had been hoped that the facility, expected to cost $10 million, would be in place by now. But it remains very much up in the air.

 The plan calls for 10,000 square feet of new space and an additional 17,000 square feet of renovated space, with areas for academic advising, strength and conditioning equipment, athletic training and sports medicine. The facility is to be located on the west side of the existing athletics complex. It is designed to serve as a gateway to the practice fields.

"It's dragging along. It got caught up in some politics," Carothers said of the current state of the center.

 He did not say so directly, but Carothers indicated that unless some major donors step forward, the school will have to do without the facility for the time being, at least. That is not a huge setback, he indicated, because work has been done in recent years to provide some of the services that would be in the new building.

 "The sports medicine part of that has been done. The academic part of it has been done. Those are good facilities, very credible facilities," he said. "The strength training part is not where it needs to be."

 More than $1 million has been raised privately for the facility. And some money is available with bonds that have been passed.

 "From my perspective, we don’t need as much money as we originally started out with," Carothers said.

 He made it clear he was reluctant to go to the General Assembly to ask for more money.

 "I don't hang out with those guys, don't go to parties. I don't give to campaigns," he said. "The new president has a chance to deal with that. I’ve always been more concerned about getting sucked into bad stuff down there."

 While the situation with the development center remains up in the air, the overall picture with athletic facilities is solid, the outgoing president feels.

"I think we're in pretty good shape facilities-wise," he said. "We need tennis courts. We could use a new outdoor track. A couple times we've had that added to a ballot question, but each time it got sliced away at the end. The only two ballot questions we've lost since I’ve been here have involved athletics."

 Work also must be done to the stands at Meade Stadium to get the football facilities up to par.

 Still, the school has put together athletic facilities that put URI in solid shape to move into the future –– wherever the future may take the school. Carothers, for one, feels that a new conference alignment appears inevitable because of the costs of air travel and hotels.

 URI is in good shape to make its own way as the landscape changes because it has relative new facilities in a number of key areas, led by the Ryan Center. The largest construction project in school history –– it cost $54 million –– will be a lasting monument to Carothers, former athletic director Ron Petro, former Gov. Lincoln Almond and former coaches Al Skinner and Jim Harrick, all of whom had a hand in the project.

 Combine Ryan with Mackal Forum, Boss Arena, the still very usable Keaney Gym, the Tootell Center and Meade Stadium and the facilities are more than adequate. The latest addition, the new Beck Field baseball complex, gave Carothers an interesting way to end his connection to athletics as president.

 Beck Field was redone with an artificial surface, thanks to an anonymous $1.3-million donation. When the field opened this spring, Carothers was asked to throw out the first pitch. He took the invitation seriously.

 "I went down to throw out the first pitch and the catcher says, 'You've got to throw warm ups,' " Carothers related. "So I threw for maybe 10 minutes with him. Any reasonable person would have just gone out and thrown a lob. I have to go out and try and throw a curve ball.

 “For a week, I couldn’t move. I had to go to physical therapy to get my back straightened out,” Carothers related with a smile.

pkenyon@projo.com