Oh, I just read the absolutely most fabulous headline of all. Let’s cross all our fingers and toes and say pretty please to the legislators for making this important project come to fruition:
“Governor backs EMU’s hopes for building renovations”
by Nathan Bomey | Ann Arbor Business Review
Gov. Jennifer Granholm today gave a boost to Eastern Michigan University’s hopes to complete extensive renovations to its biggest classroom building by recommending that the building be approved for upgrades.
Granholm’s 2008 executive budget recommendations for capital outlay projects includes EMU’s $57 million Pray-Harrold renovation proposal. The legislature still needs to approve the project.
The state government would dish out $44 million for the project, and the university would pick up the rest by issuing bonds funded by a 4 percent tuition increase enacted three years ago. …..
This is terrific news The Governor’s support means a lot, but obviously it’s the start, not the end, of the capital outlay process in Lansing. All praise to EMU Chief of Government Relations Freman Hendirx for making the case that EMU needs and deserves capital outlay funds for PrayHarrold. If EMU gets this funding, it’ll be the first time that state has helped pay for a capital outlay project at EMU in over a decade — during which time all the other state universities got one or more capital projects funded by the state. Mr. Hendrix, along with others, has done a tremendous amount to redeem Eastern’s reputation in Lansing. He’s the $8 Million Man! (just counting the funds his efforts secured from Lansing in 2007 that EMU budget makers were not counting on).
I will believe it when I see it.
I appreciate that this is good news, but I’ve heard “good news” regarding Pray-Harrold before, and even if we were to get this money and were get down to business with it tomorrow, it’d be at two years before they started any construction and probably more like 5 before it’s done.
And while there have been versions of “plans” circulated about this, does anyone know the logistics of just how this is going to get done? Where are people going to go? Where are we going to hold classes? Personally, it’s a good thing that I can teach all of the classes I need to teach online and I moved my main office to the basement of my house….
And besides all that, I still think it is basically throwing good money after bad because what they really should do is either build some new buildings and/or rehab some of the old and largely vacant dorms/former dorms on that side of campus (Goddard and King, I believe) and tear PH down.
But yeah, other than that it’s great news.
Good questions, Sitedad, and reasonable skepticism, too. Most of the details are yet to be determined, of course; there is just barebones plan in existence for what this renovation will be. When that plan, “the PH Project Statement,” was formed in 2005, there was virtually no faculty input on it, and the plan is deeply flawed. But the good news is that acting provost Bob Neely has promised faculty members that there will be a real advisory committee of faculty members to help plan this project; whether the full funds come from Lansing or not, the building needs real upgrades to heating, cooling, ventilation, pipes, etc., and EMU has the cash for that much scaled back version of the rennovation.
Academic depts. in Arts and Sciences that occupy PH, or use its classrooms, should be soon selecting reps to serve on the advisory committee for this project. I am told that a similar committee has been working hard and effectively on the MJ plans.
a year ago, Governor Grandholm vetoed a capital outlays bill that had $ for PH in it, but her veto had nothing to do with EMU, and everything to do with the legislature’s need to come up with a real state budget. In the fall, the legislature did pass some new taxes and created a sort of balanced state budget, so the situation is looking far better for EMU getting funded for PH.
The AA NEWS has a more detailed article on this today. Go, Governor! Go, Freman! Education First and the state’s future require that the largest classroom building at EMU (and perhaps in the entire state) be brought up to code and brought into the 20th century. After the funding is secured, all the real work will remain to be done….but universities are about work and getting things done. Handling the MJ and PH renovations well will be a chance for Eastern to demonstrate our relevance to the state and our capacity for good use of public funds.
King Hall is almost 70 years old. The average age of King (1939), Jones (1948) and Goddard (1955) is 60 years. The State does not provide capital outlay money for dormitories or other non-academic buildings.
Pray Harold is number 1 on the list. The table would go like this: University, Project, State $, University Match, Total$, State %.
1. Eastern Michigan University – Pray Harold Addition and Modernization 40,000,000 17,000,000 57,000,000 70.2
2. Lake Superior State University – School of Business, Economics, and Legal Studies 11,062,500 3,687,500 14,750,000 75.0
3. Michigan State University – Life Sciences Bio-Economy Expansion 40,000,000 106,300,000 146,300,000 27.3
4. Michigan Technological University – Center for Integrated Learning and Information Tech 40,000,000 19,000,000 59,000,000 67.8
5. Northern Michigan University – Bio-mass Heat and Power Cogeneration Plant 40,000,000 15,000,000 55,000,000 72.7
6. Saginaw Valley State University – Health Sciences Facility 21,000,000 7,000,000 28,000,000 75.0
7. University of Michigan Ann Arbor – Biology Building 40,000,000 135,000,000 175,000,000 22.9
8. University of Michigan Dearborn – Science and Computer Center Renovations 27,000,000 9,000,000 36,000,000 75.0
9. University of Michigan Flint – Murchie Science Laboratory Renovations 15,600,000 5,200,000 20,800,000 75.0
10. Wayne State University – Multi-disciplinary Biomedical Research Building 40,000,000 140,000,000 180,000,000 22.2
Like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. When I started my PhD program at BGSU in 1993, I recall one of the recruiting lines was that the English department (and a bunch of others, too) were going to be getting a new building and wouldn’t it be great to be a part of that. Well, the department did get a new building, I think in about 1998 or ’99, so I only missed the experience by 2 or 3 years. Now, I am guessing that I will actually see the PH work, but that’s only because I am most likely to be at EMU for another 25-35 years. So I guess all I’m saying is no one should probably pick out new furniture or drapes quite yet.
I mention those dorms, Alum, not to suggest that we refurb them back into dorms, but rather that we refurb them into academic buildings– offices, classrooms, etc.. I assume that there’s no way to do this now, but if there was some way to use the shells of those buildings and turn the insides/guts of them into academic spaces, then we’d be making use of some facilities that are a little more manageable in size, that look better, etc. If we don’t do something like that with these buildings, we’re eventually going to have to tear them down, and that ain’t free either.
Don’t get me wrong: if my choice is the current PH or a remodeled one, I’ll take the remodeled one. But there’s three basic problems/concerns I have had about the plans for the PH addition/modernization for a while now. First, even though the building is already very large, it is, paradoxically, not nearly big enough in terms of classrooms, offices, and the like. As I understand it, most of the addition would be to create a better space for students to get food/hang out/study/etc., and that is very much needed. But it doesn’t address the real crunch on space in the building.
A closely related second: as I understand the plans up to this point (and obviously, they could and may very well change), the remodeling pretty much stops at the 4th floor. That means that almost all of the offices (including mine) and somewhere between about 1/3rd and half of the classrooms are not going to get a lot more than a new coat of paint. And believe me, it has not gone unnoticed that the dean’s offices are on the 4th floor.
And third, a lot of this is (IMO) throwing good money after bad. Pray-Harrold is a shitty building in all kinds of ways, including design and architecture and aesthetics. It has “bad bones,” as they say. So I’m afraid that when they’re done, PH will still be a shitty building in all of those ways, but it’ll be bigger and have a slightly better heating and cooling system. That’d kind of be a drag.
If i recall correctly, the current so called plans call for upgrading the heat, cooling, plumbing and wiring systems of the
entire building; this would not change its appearance at all, but it would (if done correctly) improve the building’s use-ability. It would also involve a rather massive dislocation of the building’s users, for over a year; but this dislocation would be divided into 2 stages, with half of the building being emptied for construction while the other half stayed put. The dividing line is between the northern and southern half of the building. The upgrading of these building wide systems – the internal guts of the building – would be building wide, but it would not change the building’s appearances. The expansion of the building would be on the lower floors, off to the west side, if the current so called plans, devised largely in isolation from the faculty and students, are adhered too.
Alum, thanks for the data on the other proposals in the Governor’s outlay proposal. It’s not insignificant, to say the least, that EMU is at the top of her list. But it still has to get thru the legislature and be signed. Cross your fingers, and work for a good plan for how to spend this money. Thankfully the interim Dean of the College, who has also served as the PrayHarrold building administrator, a person who has both misrepresented the contents of the PrayHarrold Program Statement and kept it from faculty, will most likely be moving out of the Dean’s office before too long, and thus the prospects for meaningful faculty and student input should increase. As one veteran Department Head said recently, “A list of building related questions and concerns that the Dean has ducked or lied about would be long and depressing.”
SiteDad:
King Hall has not been used as a dormatory for about 35 years. When I arrived on campus in 1967 King was being used by the music department. In addition, f you watched the tear down of Goodison you might begin to understand why the old dorms can not be gutted to shells and refurbished as academic buildings. Goodison took the longest time to demolish due to its construction. The best thing to do, is tear them down and make better use of the real estate.
The other good thing this time around is the fact that it is highly likely that a democrat will Chair the Joint Capital Outlay Sub Committee. If you remember the last couple of times Pray-Harold was not allowed on the JCPSC agenda – not an agenda item, no money.
Mark, I’ve heard this split building construction plan too, but I also heard several years ago (actually, from Loppnow directly while chatting before a Faculty Council meeting) that the plan was to move everybody out of the building because the construction could be done much more quickly. So my guess these things are up in the air.
I have no idea what the plan is or what will be in the 5 or so years (I predict) it will take to actually get this thing going. But I gotta say that if the plan is to split the building in half (I guess so half the elevators could be used at a time?), I have to think that there’s going to be at least three different unions filing grievances. It seems to me that teaching in the midst of a construction site would just be flat-out dangerous, not to mention highly disruptive to the learning experience.
As for this construction making the building more “user friendly” and usable: That’s another one I’ll believe when I see. I can see Alum’s point about the dorms being possibly true, but I have to think that the same has to be true about the challenges of reconstructing/refurbing PH. And with PH, I am reminded of a proverb regarding a purse and a pig’s ear.
Correction: King Hall has not been a dorm for over 40 years.
Hope for the best and plan for the worst? I hope that meaningful
faculty (and student) input is not only sought, but actually
implemented. Too many classrooms on the EMU campus have had
lots of money poured into them without any input from the folks
who actually use them (faculty and students). It is great that EMU
has been installing digital light projectors in classrooms. Sadly, the
vast majority were installed in such a way that when the projector
and the screen are in use, this prevents the use of the chalk board.
INHO, the use of both (often simultaneously) is essential for effective
pedagogy.
Lamont & Sitedad are perfectly justified in their skepticism. The innane way that the overhead projectors were installed is a recent illustration of the necessity of planning that involves the actual users – in this case, instructors – of the improvement. My recollection is that in fall 2006 CAS deans’ office leaders asserted that there was no possibility of putting such new technologies into PH classrooms anytime soon (I was told this personally); but then later that academic year, they decided that they had the funds to do so, and moved forward with it, without consulting (to my knowledge) anyone who actually uses the relevant classrooms. Similarly, years ago the PH auditoriums were “upgraded” — replacing flooring that tended to muffle sounds with bare concrete, which magnifies them. That was a typical Business & Finance Division’s expensive way to make the auditoriums less hospitable to teaching and learning. Just last summer, the same folks tore out asbestos from PH without informing faculty & staff, and nothing has been done to discipline the several officials who permitted that gross violation of health and safety standards and common sense; so skepticism about whether that Division will permit meaningful input and dialog about anything important is not without a basis in fact.
But I will also say that I think the faculty is now pretty strongly focusd on getting improved facilities, and we as a group are willing to stand up and demand improvements, and we’ve been fighting for them for a few years already. Such efforts have certainly shaped university priorities (as a friend of mine privately chided me for not sufficiently acknowledging when I earlier praised Freman Hendrix for securing state funds). So I am optimistic that there will be meaningful input. Maybe I am a dreamer, and maybe I will be proven wrong, but I have hope. Still, I am not usually among the most sanguine of faculty members’ about what the Administration’s upper level decision makers are gonna do. And, sadly, experience has shown that usually the most dire predictions about what will be done have been pretty close to what eventually happens at EMU.
You should have more skepticism in the State Building Authority.
Just think.. Not 1 minute was spent on any Fundraising or Private Donations Campaign for Pray Harrold funding, but perhaps 20-30 years was spent sitting around hoping for Michigan Taxpayers to fund it by force through the state legislature.
Oh but it is so great to have a Democrat chair the JCPSC where I know this project will get fully funded with no questions asked about reducing the price tag.
Do we honestly need to expand Pray Harrold during a time when we should focus on renovating it first? That’s what 15 million or so of Tax Payer Dollars we wouldn’t have to spend during a 7.6% unemployment economy if we postponed the Expansion portion for later. Of course no one listens to a little ole Republican like me. *smirk*
No one asked questions when the State was run totally by Republicans who gorged themselves and spent hundreds of millions of dollars at schools in Republican districts. But that wasn’t right either was it? If we postpone the expansion until later, it will never be built.
Pray Harrold is being renovated?? I sure hope so. I had several classes there when I was a student in the 90′s(1990-1995). I often thought of it as outdated and dirty.
Colleen
Mark (and everyone), I freely admit to being a bit of a pessimist on this grand PH remodeling, certainly more than Mark seems to be here. So I guess I’d like to propose a friendly wager:
There’s a web site called Long Bets. Basically, it’s a site where people make geeky “bets” of sorts with the proceeds going to charity. A couple of bet examples: “By 2050, we will receive intelligent signals from outside our solar system;” “By the year 2020, the tickets to space travel – at the least to Moon, will be available over the counter;” “Music CDs compatible with current (2002) CD players will still be sold regularly in 2015;” and so forth. It’s kind of a hoot of a site.
So, here’s my modest bet:
Construction on Pray-Harrold will not begin before the year 2013. And by “construction,” I don’t mean plans or committees, hiring a contractor, or even faculty/staff moving out of the building; I mean honest to goodness construction workers doing construction.
On the web site Long Bets, the wagers are for donations to charity. Not a wealthy professor in a recession economy, I’m not willing to play for the stakes of some of these bets. But I am willing to personally cover $100 of this; any takers on either side?
I like real bets, face to face, with a handshake, and stakes like a dinner or a drink, to be shared. And I only bet on things that I am pretty sure I can control the outcome of, or about which I am fully confident of the outcome. I take a bit of pride in betting successfully on election outcomes and such; I bet my expectations, not my hopes. So I’d have to decline this bet, Sitedad – I am hopeful but not certain. I’ve lost few bets about developments at EMU, and won many, and I don’t want to risk the streak.
Also, the terms you specify are too vague – would ‘construction’ of new ventilation systems, etc., but not addition to the building, prior to 2013 count or not count? EMU nearly has the $ set aside for those repairs of the building’s guts already.
Chicken.
And I don’t think my terms are that vague, actually. When we see people in/around PH with hard hats and jack hammers and constructing things, that’s “construction.”
Anyone else besides Mark interested in this one?
The website sounds intriguing, Sitedad. I am not one to bet on the doings of politicians, just one to cross my fingers and use my free speech to get them to do the right thing. Once that hurdle of legislation is past, I might be willing to bet on the time it takes for the project to be underway or to be complete, etc, but right now, it seems easier to predict where and when the 10,000 pound satellite will fall in North America.
I am both hoping and fearing that it will be in the States, for pacifist Canada doesn’t deserve yet another bombing by our military after what happened in Afganistan. But then again, I wouldn’t want it to land anywhere near us or anyone else on this planet either …
OK, Sitedad, how about this: Dinner and drinks at an Ypsilanti establishment of the winner’s choice, with me betting that “construction” of a PH project that is projected by the relevant university authories to cost at least $10 million, begins before January 1, 2013. The timetable is what you proposed, the stakes more to my liking, and the terms of what ‘construction’ means more specified.
No way– they can spend $10 million just talking about construction, and given EMU’s accounting processes, how the heck are the likes of you and me supposed to know when they spend this much money?
Personally, I think the definition of construction is pretty clear, people carrying around tools and wearing hard hats and trucks and all of that stuff. But if you’d prefer, we can wager on the date in which the construction is done. So how about this:
Construction on Pray-Harrold will not be completed until the beginning of the the Fall 2015 term. And by “completed,” I mean all the classrooms are in use, faculty and staff are back in permanent offices (though I suppose it is possible that some departments/units will be permanently moved out of PH based on some kind of reconfiguration or another), etc., etc.
Ah, wiggle wiggle wiggle, Steve. The term “the construction” is too vague – new sidewalks would meet your definition by what one sees, as would putting on a new roof. “People carrying around tools” can be a lot of things short of a $60 million job, and bets should be well defined as to the terms, to keep everyone happy in the end.
I proposed something measurable – a budget – to bet on for PH construction. And I proposed to bet on a scale of rehab for PH that is totally feasible. And I have read every document available to me about what the plans for PH may entail, and what the finances are.
Like I said, I like to bet only on what I am pretty certain of — and EMU has the funds for making $10-17 million of upgrades to the buildign’s “guts” pretty much on hand. Indeed, there’s no good reason for the building’s guts to have been allowed to decline to the point that they have, aside from the usual indifference of the Business and Finance Division to matters of instruction. I’m conservative: I bet but take few chances with bets. My point is that EMU could have substantially upgraded PH years ago, instead of doing so EMU built the President’s House, etc. but that despite those mistakes, and regardless of what the legislature does on capital outlays this year, EMU can still afford to fix the internal systems of PH; and that there is a real chance of EMU getting $40 million or so from the state, this year, to combine with the $ EMU has set aside, from tuition, to cover costs of fixing the internals of the the building.
I bet the $50 million PH rehabilitation will please prospective students and families, and people involved in
freshmen and sophomore classes. And ICT will be pleased, of course, because it’s getting a huge upgrade (much needed, of course, but not immediately impacting the classroom). Fifth, sixth, and seventh floor classrooms, labs and
offices will have minimal to zero upgrades: we’ll continue with poor HVAC (remember that HVAC was “fixed” after the PH fire?), gloomily lit halls, leaky plumbing, electrical outlets in the middle of rooms, and underpowered. A bit more than a Potemkin village, but the faculty quarter will not be for public viewing anyway.
Well, I *would* bet, but I don’t like betting on something to happen that I don’t want to happen. On the other hand, I almost always lose actual bets. Maybe I *should* bet on this.
I hope I’m wrong. Or, I mean right. Whatever.
Mark, Mark, Mark…
With all the budgeting highjinks that have gone on at EMU for more than the last couple of years, I don’t think I’m willing to use any budget information from EMU as a measuring stick for this wager or any other bet. This is why I am only wanting to stick with something we can all point to and see as a real sign of real progress/construction/change.
Now, I for one think that it’ll be easy to tell what constitutes “construction.” But if you aren’t comfortable with that as a measurement, how about when the project is complete, as I suggest with my 2015 date?
Or, how about this bet/statement:
No faculty/staff/students/etc. will be displaced from and/or moved out of Pray-Harrold due to a major renovation project until Fall 2012.
So, what I’m saying here is that if the refurbishing of PH that we’ve been talking about here is going to happen (and for me, that’s definitely an “if”), then there is no way that it really gets underway in any meaningful way until Fall 2012. If you’re squeamish about that time-frame, you might be able to talk me into Winter 2013; anytime later than that for a move-out, and I’m not so sure.
The interesting thing about this dialog on possible PH improvements, both on this blog and in conversations around the building, is how little hope there is among faculty and students and staff that this will be done. For years, we’ve been told by various aministrators that the PH improvements are just around the corner — and each time it was nothing but short term fantasies presented as if they were factual certainties. In the first conversation I had with Bill Shelton — remmber him? the EMU president in the 1990s? a president who looked lame then but who looks great now, since he produced no huge public scandal — he promised that the PH improvements would be done soon. After all, PH was on the top of EMU’s capital outlay requests. PH stayed there for a decade, and got no serious traction in Lansing.
But things are different now — the governor is pushing our PH request, and EMU has highly capable people representing us in Lansing now, and the EMU faculty and student leadership are focused on improved facilities. There’s no certainty about outcomes, and the current so called “plan” for PH is less of a plan than a half baked hodgepodge, but the state may be giving EMU $44 million for the project, and EMU on its own can afford to fix the internal systems of the building, without or without the state match for expanding the building.
So I am hopeful. And I encourage people to take the issue seriously. The Provost’s office has called on academic depts. to elect faculty reps to an advisory planning committee for the PH project; it’s a committee that can make a huge difference on the quality of the plans and the quality of the eventual work…but only if it is taken seriously. My dept., at our Monday faculty meeting, elected one rep and two alternates to this committee. No word yet on what admiinistrators will serve on it — and it could be terrific people, as most EMU administrators are terrific. But it could be chaired by an administrator who’s been more part of the problem than the solution, over the years, so much is uncertain. And the state may not, in the end, come up with $44 million, in which case EMU should move ahead with just rhe basic repalrs of HVAC and wiring, etc, which EMU has the cash for….Less exciting, but still vital.
I have high hopes, and I don’t think they are unrealistic.
But as for bets, Steve, I bet on what I think is close to certain, and not on the unknown. Hence the conservative, very specific nature of what bet i’d be willing to wager on our worksite’s prospects for imrovement.
Who among the EMUTalk readers has been around campus long enough to recall this joke, which was current right after the fire that
errrupted on the building’s “penthouse” center of wiring in early 2000?
“Good news and bad news about PrayHarrold. First, the good news — there was a fire in PrayHarrold! Now, the bad news! They put it out!”
I just want to say as a person sensitive to my environment, that the Pray Harold building needs new ventilation. Often people complain about there being no air in the building. This is very counterproductive to a grounded learning environment.