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New, individual-seat bleacher system will enhance Christmas Festival

kla
November 17, 2000

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? A new bleacher system at St. Olaf College will greatly enhance comfort and provide numerous safety features for St. Olaf Christmas Festival spectators.

The Skoglund Center Auditorium indoor bleachers provide molded, individual, state-of-the-art seats with back supports and armrests for each spectator. The seats, constructed of black, high-density polyethylene foam, replace 33-year-old wood-and-steel bench bleachers that were built when Skoglund Center was constructed in 1967.

The bleacher system was installed this summer to comply with the Bleacher Safety Act, part of the Minnesota State Building Code. The new seats will be used not only for the Christmas Festival, but for men?s and women?s basketball and volleyball games, major concerts and lectures, and other all-college events.

Safety improvements provided by the new seating system include safer handrails and side railings, increased aisle widths, aisle railings and four new exits from the top of the bleachers.

The polyethylene seats are fixed to sliding platforms that extend and retract to store against the auditorium walls.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty of approximately 256. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in number of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.