Listed among the top-20 universities in the world by Times Higher Education, the University of Toronto is a beacon at home and abroad. Yet, compared with other great urban universities, such as University College London or the University of Chicago, this city campus has little green space and that little is becoming less.

By point of contrast, the University of Pittsburgh has converted an asphalt parking lot into a one-acre lawn where city residents and students read, play and eat lunch. U of T had its own award-winning plan, “Investing in the Landscape.” It was unanimously approved by all levels of governance in 1999. It said: “The landscape is one of the University’s greatest physical assets.” So much for then.

Now, doing the opposite of forward-thinking institutions, U of T and Infrastructure Ontario, for Pan Am 2015, are preparing to tear out soil and grass, replace them with “sterile fill,” and lay down asphalt covered by green nylon. While other campuses and cities have recognized that green spaces are their heart and lungs, U of T wants to turf its 12,000-square-metre historic back campus to make way for two regulation-size field hockey pitches. How many field hockey players are there at the University of Toronto? Former dean of Physical Education Bruce Kidd estimates 25. Meanwhile, a new field hockey pitch has been built in Brampton. It will be used for Pan Am qualifying matches this summer — $9.5 million is a lot of taxpayer money for redundancy.

Synthetic turfs have proved useful for many institutions, but the back campus is not just another schoolyard. It is a central part of Canadian history, bordered on all sides by heritage buildings. The historic status of back campus also comes from its use as a drilling and parade ground by Canadian soldiers. Together with http://my.alumni.utoronto.ca/s/731/index_clean.aspx?sid=731&gid=9 , it forms the heart of the university’s observance of gratitude to its war veterans. Part of the original Queen’s Park, it is one of only five areas specially designated by the City of Toronto as a “University Open Space.”

Turfing the back campus will have an adverse effect on the city’s environment. John Danahy, of U of T’s Centre for Landscape Research, writes: “Not enough people on campus have considered the heat impacts.”

The university says it aims to expand access to the field, but the manufacturer’s handbook and International Hockey Federation guidelines state that water-filled turf must be protected from outside contaminants in order to be maintained for high-performance sport competitions. U of T insists it can both protect its $9.5-million investment in this high-performance surface — for which it has agreements with Field Hockey Canada — and widen access. But only one of these claims can be true.

The university promises “nearly full season use of the space.” The manufacturer’s handbook, however, states that the water-filled turf cannot be used in sub-zero-Celsius weather. As forestry professor Paul Aird has written, “At the first risk of frost, the irrigating system must be turned off and drained before the pipes freeze and break. This limits use of the turf to Toronto’s average frost-free period of 160 to 170 days, or less than six months.” The grass field is open year-round.

The construction project is part of a “revitalization of athletic facilities at the University of Toronto” and will provide facilities for “high-performance athletes.” Those are admirable goals, but consider the trade-offs. It is impossible to both maintain field hockey pitches to internationally mandated standards, costing an estimated $415,685 per year, and open the space to casual use. No institution can be all things to all people.

According to published guidelines for field hockey, food, beverages other than water, dirty shoes, chewing gum, birds (this will be interesting), leaves from deciduous trees that currently surround the site, are strictly prohibited from the fields. No more picnics, no gum chewing, and wash your shoes! And, when the turf wears out in less than ten years, who pays to replace it? Advocates, who say that the field will be able to be used in the same way it always has, want to have their cake and eat it too. So, what’s it going to be?

Canadians should be proud to host the Pan Am Games and proud of our great universities. Let’s not compromise one to serve the other.

Alan Ackerman is a professor of English at the University of Toronto.