Facilities: St. John’s will spend $5 million to renovate the interior Camesecca Arena, home to Red Storm athletics since 1961. The upgrades, planned for this summer, will be part of a multi-phase improvement project for the facility. This renovation will include a new playing surface, overhauled seating and enhanced ticketing and lobby areas. The entire project, estimated at $30 million, will include renovations of the locker rooms and administrative offices and the exterior façade, as well as the Student-Athlete Center for Excellence, completed last fall … Stony Brook announced $20 million renovation and expansion of its arena. The Stony Brook University Arena opened in 1990 and is home to the Seawolves basketball teams. The project will bring a new bowl seating configuration, modern arena video technology, improved practice courts, a new competition court, luxury suites, a VIP lounge, improved fan amenities and indoor training spaces for the track and field teams. Work is expected to begin this fall, and the renovated Pritchard Gymnasium will serve as the home court for the 2008-09 basketball and volleyball seasons.

Sports sponsorship: Rhode Island announced it will eliminate men’s swimming, men’s tennis and field hockey at the conclusion of the 2007-08 academic year. The school previously had announced the elimination of gymnastics. The school said the decisions were financial – after a shortfall in the state’s budget, the athletics department needed to remove $800,000 from its annual operating budget.

Miscellaneous: Former Charlotte track and field student-athlete Sharonda Johnson won a National Science Foundation Fellowship for her proposed research entitled Viability of Various Nanoparticles in Biological Systems. The three-year, $120,000 award includes $30,000 a year for personal expenses and $10,000 per year for educational expenses. Johnson is working on her doctorate in nanoscale science at Charlotte. Her research will delve into the use of nanoparticles to deliver drug treatment to specific cells in an effort to battle disease and illness more efficiently.