The Hostler Sports Center  By Mirna Shidrawi ---                 Plans for a student sports complex were submitted by Dar Al-Handasah after Charles Hostler pledged a donation of $11.7 million to AUB for the much needed development of its sports facilities.  The Charles Hostler Student Center, as Dar Al-Handasah predicted in its study,  will be  a "unified and a comprehensive sports and student activity center near existing outdoor sports facilities; green field and the beach . . .  . [It is a way to] unify the support facilities (toilets, changing, shower, storage and offices) for the new and existing facilities, the beach and football field."     The center will be located on either side of the Green Field in  the sea parking area and the engineering gymnasium.  The proposed plan contains four major sections: the dry activities section, the wet activities section, the car parking space section, and the upgrading of the Green Field section.     The dry activities section will consist of a multipurpose gymnasium, to be used for indoor sports activities like basketball and volleyball.  A fully equipped auditorium, rooms for aerobics, gymnastics, martial arts, physical fitness, and ping pong, in addition to an internet room and a library are also to be constructed.  New outdoor practice courts and fields for basketball, football and volleyball will also be added.  This section of the plan will include also operational and athletics offices alongside showers, toilets, and changing rooms.       Most of the dry activities are to be built on the site of the existing parking lot.  Theoretically and as the study shows, the preliminary construction schedule is going take sixteen months, and will cost approximately $4.3 million.      The wet activities area will contain an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor diving pool, spectator seating, support facilities such as changing rooms, showers and toilets, and complementary operational and athletic offices.  The wet activities are suggested to be built on the area of engineering gymnasium.  The studies predict work to be over in nine month, and the costs around $2.5 million.     The "car park" section, built underground, will have a larger capacity than the present area.  Predicted approximate costs are $3.5 million.      As for "the upgrading of the Green Field," the running track will be increased to six lanes and the current stadium will be covered and additional spectator seats added.     Since the proposed project will entail the replacement of the old sports facilities by the new "comprehensive" complex, certain existing buildings and sites are going to be demolished.  Hence, the engineering gymnasium (the indoor court), elevated water tank, landscape maintenance store, the changing rooms, showers, toilets, the office that serves the beach, the car park control booth, and the existing grandstand are all to be removed.  Some trees will be replanted, and some roads rerouted.     Talk about updating the current facilities and the addition of new ones have always been heard around campus.  However, the problem was always the money, and projects were postponed from one year to the other.  Nevertheless, the dream is about to become a reality with Charles Hostler's pledge of $11.7 million.       Charles W. Hostler graduated from AUB in 1955.  He then served as the US Military Attaché in Beirut from 1958 to 1961.  In 1964, he became the Director of the International Operations of Douglas Aircraft Company.  During the Gulf War, he occupied the position of Ambassador to Bahrain for four years.  In a statement for President Waterbury about the topic, he said, Hostler's "pledge at this time is testimony to his faith in Lebanon and its people, whom he came to admire during the nine years of residence in Beirut."