History, Parking, and Culture Collide at Peace
By Mikayla Davis
The only on-campus field at William Peace University was slated to be torn down for a parking lot this year, but after pushback and permitting delays, its demolition has been postponed until Summer 2026.
There has been a lot of uncertainty and tension surrounding the future of the softball field. Though it has been revealed that the field is safe for now, due to delays with the city of Raleigh, questions still remain about its long-term future, and the issue has gotten attention outside of Peace, with outlets like WRAL, ABC11, and CBS17 covering the ‘Save our Field’ movement.
History of the Field
The matter is especially personal to former coach Charlie Dobbins, who helped build the field and nicknamed it “The Meadow,” signifying more than just a softball diamond. The Hall of Famer retired following the 2024 season, after dedicating 25 years building the program.
The history of the softball field dates back to the 1950s, according to Dobbins, at which point it served as a Little League field for the surrounding Mordecai community.
The earliest appearance of a Peace softball program found in past editions of the Lotus dates back to the 1981 Peace College Green Giants slow-pitch team. The roster boasted just ten names, including the team manager.
Dobbins said that when he was hired in 1998, Liz Thurston, dean of students at the time, informed him that the team would be playing at a city park. In turn he requested the Fall of 1998 to “get the current field back in playing shape,” and that is just what he did.
At the time, Peace was using the field to store materials being used for the construction of the Flowe academic building. Coach Dobbins was proud to report that, “with hard work from family and friends, we played there in the spring of 1999.”
Since then, the field has hosted major events through the years, including NCAA tournaments, the Grand Slam Triangle Classic, Olympic Softball players, and the Wounded Warrior Amputee Team.
The field has also served as a setting for major life events in the Dobbins family — from putting up its first fence with help from his wife and son, to giving away his daughter, William Peace Athletics Hall of Famer Niki Dobbins, at her wedding ceremony on the field.
Update on Northeast Lot
In an emailed response to a request for comment, Peace President Lynn Morton said that construction of the new parking lot on the northeast corner of campus has been delayed due to ongoing discussions with the City of Raleigh. The project is now scheduled for completion in August 2026. She emphasized the importance of the lot for Peace’s growing student body.
“With a growing number of commuter students, the new lot is critical for our on-campus population,” she stated.
Morton reported that, while an engineering firm applied for a permit from the City of Raleigh last spring, delays have halted the project until next summer. She also said that Peace has been in ongoing talks with Raleigh Parks and Recreation since Fall 2024 about another location for the softball program.
The planned conversion of Blount and Person streets from one-way to two-lane roads — and the resulting loss of street parking — adds pressure to communal parking concerns, Morton said during a press conference with The Peace Times staff.
To help alleviate these concerns, Peace plans to explore partnerships with Person Street businesses for shared parking and opportunities to rent additional spaces out, especially in the evenings and on weekends. Morton asserted that this decision is not based on revenue, but rather on growing our “symbiotic relationships.”
At the press conference, President Morton explained that the decisions were made based on input from athletics, senior leadership, and enrollment/parking data.
She has continued to remind students and community members that this was part of a 2017 Master Plan, drawn up prior to her tenure.
“When I got in here, I was told that this had been on the table for a long time,” she said, “that it wasn’t going to be a big surprise, that the athletics department knew, and that softball, which is a very important historical entity on our campus, was not going to be shocked by this,” Morton said.
Digging Deeper
More specifically, the 2017 plan called for a main focus on resident halls and immersive learning through way of improvements and new construction. It included multiple new dorms and even a Residence Quad with outdoor areas such as breezeways, terraces, and a promenade connecting the Person Street district to Seaboard Station, along with a parking garage.
“We don’t need a garage, and we’re not going there,” President Morton said.
While the 2017 plan did propose the campus softball field be the site for a residence hall, parking, and retail, it was also predicted that Peace would grow from 800 students to 1,300, or 1,500 as reported by News & Observer, over the following five years.
Total enrollment for the Fall of 2023 was 730 students, a number that has dropped since Peace taught 1,038 students in 2015.
Dobbins, who says he is proficient in both Title 9 laws and construction, estimated that the cost of the project could total at least $2 million, citing “special lighting, the expansion of Harp street and making the proposed parking lot a permeable surface,” as major expenses.
WPU spent over $1 million turfing a field at the national Training Center in Cary to Title 9 Specifications for the baseball team, according to Dobbins.
“Where is the university building an off campus facility that is comparable to what baseball has, and where are we getting the money?” he asked.
The university is awaiting completion of the permitting process by its contracted engineering firm before requesting construction estimates, which will determine the final budget and timeline for the lot’s development, according to an emailed statement from Karen Dunton, assistant vice president for integrated marketing and communications.
Dobbins also questioned why the university would choose to spend the money considering that, according to his research of public records, they already own a parking lot just past Peace China at Seaboard Station under the name of Peace Properties.
Dunton said that the university does not own the parking lot located on Halifax Street across from campus.
“This lot is owned by Peace Properties, an entity created when the institution acquired the property that was later sold for the development of Seaboard Station,” Dunton stated. The sale granted the developer a multi-year option to buy the parking lot, with one year left on the agreement.
“There are lots of opportunities to make WPU better. Making the softball field a parking lot is not a smart choice due to cost and how it will impact recruiting for the softball program,” Dobbins stated.
Student Parking Concerns
Many current students have expressed their contempt for paying for parking decals, but struggling to find parking spaces, including senior softball captain for Peace, Raegan Stewart.
“It gets a little crowded, but… it was more of a parking enforcement issue, instead of a parking issue,” she stated.
Kirstie Brown, a Peace student majoring in communication, reported feeling sympathetic toward the softball program, but stated, “at the same time, we can’t keep dealing with this situation in the parking lot.”
If students are forced to pay for street parking or public lots, despite having purchased parking through the school, Brown feels that creates another issue. She suggests the school use the funds received from parking passes to provide additional student parking.
“I don’t know, there’s a way to do it,” she added.
Human Resource Management and Psychology student, Diana Cisneros, also commented on the distress parking has been causing.
“This is my first semester, like, literally, where else am I supposed to park?” she said.
The recent Wake Tech grad feels that “there probably should just be an additional parking lot because I haven’t noticed any cars that don’t have decals.”
Avid Peace softball supporter and parent, Paul Stewart, reported witnessing several cars in the main parking lot without decals just earlier this year, however.
“I just started counting the number of cars there that did not have parking stickers as I was walking to the office, and there were like 13 of them,” he stated.
According to him, none of these vehicles received tickets, including his own. The former baseball star suggests improving enforcement issues with tech fixes, such as license plate reading cameras.
Community Pushback
While it has been stated that the current delay is not due to the resistance the plans were met with, it undoubtedly brought visibility to the issue. A petition garnishing over 1,800 signatures showed strong opposition to demolishing the field.
Stewart, going into her second season as captain, felt it showed that many students and alumni view the field as central to campus identity.
“It showed administration, ‘hey, people really do care about this field.’ It’s not just the softball team that’s upset about it. It’s other athletes, other people on campus and even the community,” she stated.
Paul Stewart, creator of the petition, admitted he does not believe the effort had any impact on the plans of administration, though he was appreciative of the response.
“It was really great, though, to see the outpouring of support and love for the softball team. For the individual players on the team, for the coaches, and for that field… I know it meant a lot to the girls, to see that kind of support, I just wish it meant more to the people who made the decisions,” he stated.
His other critique is how seemingly unprepared administration appeared to be for the transition, floating options like city parks that are not fit to satisfy a collegiate team long-term.
“They kind of came at this, it felt like, without a real plan in place because they’re just like ‘oh we’ll just put you at the park down the street,” Paul Stewart explained. “I just think there wasn’t much thought that went through with what it would’ve meant to do that.”
The issue with using a city field, he said, is the matter of concessions. This would include plans for where field equipment would be stored and the process of getting the field ready to be played on.
President Morton’s Response
“I feel terrible about how people are feeling about it,” Morton said at the press conference. “Nobody feels good.”
She acknowledged that the parking shortage is real, especially for commuters, but admitted the grievances over the field keep her awake at night.
Morton said it is challenging to make strategic decisions for the university’s long-term growth.
“You cannot make everybody happy,” Morton said. “Somebody’s going to be mad no matter what decision you make…but sometimes you have to make decisions based on what’s the best thing for the greatest number of people, and not the loudest people, the greatest number of people, and you’ve got to try to anticipate the future, which is always a challenge.”
Morton continues to try and balance Peace’s culture and tradition with that of other urban universities, and the evolving needs of students and the community.
History of Growth at Peace
When Laura Carpenter Bingham became President in 1998, she believed the 15-acre campus was too isolated. She began working on the first expansion the campus had seen in 40 years, as reported by the News & Observer in 2003.
In December of 2002, Peace purchased ~3 acres—including the field and Franklin Street— from Raleigh Housing Authority for $1.2 million. The college also committed $500,000 to build a road connecting a once dead-end road, Delway Street, to Halifax Street, according to a Peace College attorney at the time, Gary Parsons, quoted in the News & Observer.
Former president Bingham saw the deal as fundamental to the college’s expansion plans.
There was a public hearing before the City Council on the matter as residents worried that the Franklin Street closure would jeopardize nearby businesses, disrupt traffic flow, and cut off pedestrians.
The following February, the campus was surrounded by signs petitioning the expansion and calling into question Peace’s status of being a “Good Neighbor.”
Peace and the RHA responded with a petition of their own, urging the City of Raleigh to close the nearly 500-foot stretch of Franklin Street that Peace now owns. Later that October, City Council approved the plans to accommodate the expansion in a 5-2 vote.
Bingham set out to grow Peace’s enrollment from 650 students to 850 in 2007, its 150th anniversary. The master plan was to include parking, classrooms, faculty offices, dorms, and open space.
The field has long been tied to both community history and Peace’s modern growth. Today, the same field that symbolized growth is at the center of a debate about the university’s future.
Pacer Athletic Culture
Both Reagan Stewart and Dobbins point out that the field is utilized by many other teams under the Pacer Athletics Department, as it is the only outdoor facility on campus.
“Other varsity field sports use the field almost everyday,” Dobbins said. “Baseball uses the cages and mounds in center field, both lacrosse teams use the wall in right field for skill development, both soccer teams have access to train and develop teamwork. When we had a track team, they ran out there daily.”
“The softball field is an important and critical component of the WPU experience,” said Charlie Dobbins, 1998-2023 Head Softball Coach.
Reagan Stewart’s message to the administration is to support athletics as an enrollment driver.
“I love Peace and want our school to flourish and grow, but I just hope administration sees where they do get a lot of their enrollment from, and helps advocate for athletics,” she said.
This also isn’t the first time athletics facilities have been repurposed at Peace; there was a campus swimming pool, until it became the auxiliary gym after 2012, and tennis courts that were sold and removed in 2019.
Supporter Paul Stewart pointed out that many of the students residing on-campus are student athletes, and they are all facing their one true home field being paved over.
“Rather than push people away, it would seem like you should be embracing that community on campus,” he said. “Not that they should be doted on or anything, but if it’s a big part of your school and a big part of your identity…”
Paul Stewart provided a reminder of how integral the field is to Peace tradition — especially given its roots as an all-women’s college — “the softball team meant a lot to the school. It would be nice to hang on to some of that tradition as well.”
Player’s Perspective
A bittersweet feeling mixed with excitement is what senior biology major Raegan Stewart describes experiencing as she prepares for her upcoming and last season as a Pacer. She describes the team culture as having a strong family dynamic with low drama and credits both Coach Dobbins and Coach Conway for their contributions.
“It feels like home… we’re really happy we get to keep it for another year.” Raegan Stewart, Senior softball captain
Raegan Stewart argues that proximity matters, as a field on campus versus one off-campus could sway decisions from potential players, as well as negatively affect the current team.
“If I was coming into recruit and saw that I had to drive to go to practice… if I had another option where the field is right by my dorm room, it’s definitely something to consider,” she explains, “But then if the new field is really nice, then it’s like, oh, cool, I get to go to this really good field. That’s why it just depends, I think, on how well they do building the field.”
Players and supporters voiced concerns over, not only the time and cost associated with commuting to their field, but also the effect it will have on overall morale.
At its current spot, students are able to support their classmates and join in on the festivities of the game with just a short walk from the academic buildings.
“I’ve been to some of the baseball games over at the USA complex and it’s literally girlfriends, moms, and dads,” Raegan’s father added. The softball team feeds off the energy created from the Peace community and worries about how the move will change this.
Raegan Stewart’s hopes for the future of the Peace softball program are that incoming girls will continue to embrace the culture they have built, remaining family-oriented and competitive.
“I hope we just continue to succeed. We did have a pretty strong season last year, so I hope we can build on that,” she stated.
Program Overview
The team is currently led by Head Softball Coach Lauren Conway, Assistant Softball Coach Cameron Davis, and Volunteer Assistant Softball Coach Rob Conway. The coaching team remains positive about the situation.
“Although the future of the field isn’t clear, we know we will be taken care of and provided with the things we need as a program by Peace. We are ecstatic to have this year at our original home field and the excitement and energy is felt through our girls,” Head Coach Conway stated.
Conway is an alumna of the program herself, holding the title of USA South Second Team All-East Division catcher in 2021 and 2022 and ranking third in the conference in batting average (.444) in 2022. She rejoined the program as an Assistant Softball Coach for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, before moving up to Head Coach following Coach Dobbins retirement.
Coach Conway, who has already held one-on-one meetings with each of her players to discuss their goals, praises their resilience and positivity amid the uncertainty.
“I am truly grateful for the support we’ve received and even more proud of how our team has handled the uncertainty,” she said. “They’ve shown resilience, positivity, and a strong commitment to one another, which speaks volumes about who they are as student-athletes. I couldn’t be more excited to see what this year has in store.”
Raegan Stewart is confident in her team and hopeful for the upcoming season.
“I think we have a really good team, we started off really strong last year, and we have a lot of the same girls, so I think we could definitely use that momentum from last year and carry it to this year,” she said.
Bigger Picture
It is not uncommon to have tension between facilities for athletics and space for academics or commuters at small urban universities. As President Morton noted in a statement made earlier this year, many urban universities, and the majority of Peace’s athletic programs, practice and play at off-campus facilities around the Triangle.
The Peace softball field represents both history and community pride, while parking challenges currently remain unresolved and will require creative solutions. The future of the field may be controversial, but for now, the Pacers get one more season at home.
