Category Archives: Buildings and Grounds

EMU-Flint to close?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by | 9 Comments

An alert reader emailed me to let me know that EMU-Flint is set to close at the end of this semester.  I don’t know this person’s sources, so maybe someone else can confirm that.  And I frankly didn’t know there was an EMU-Flint, but it apparently operates through continuing education on the campus of Mott Community College.

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Posted in Academics, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, Student Life

At least we don’t have bedbugs, right?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by | 3 Comments

It’s been an extremely busy couple of weeks for me on this pesky day-job so I haven’t had much a chance to post here.  That and there’s not much going on.  But  in the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d pass along this amusing bit from Inside Higher Ed:  “Bedbug Cover-Up Alleged.”  To quote in total:

It’s the cover-up that always gets you. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln is the latest college to face a bedbug problem in some dormitories — an event that has been treated as a serious annoyance by students elsewhere, but hasn’t led to scandals. As The Lincoln Journal Star reported, however, a resident assistant in one housing unit reported that when she found bedbugs, she was discouraged from telling the students, and was told to tell them that her room was being remodeled, not that it was being scrubbed for bedbugs. The university denies a cover-up, but students aren’t convinced.

Indeed, it is the cover-up that always gets you….

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, In the media..., Student Life

In more library plumbing news…

Posted on January 22, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Once again, Provost Kim Schatzel has sent around an update about the busted pipe in the basement in Halle (which I include below), and it would seem that the library and physical plant people are on top of it all and making good progress on the repairs.  Two things that occur to me now:

  • I’m pretty impressed with Schatzel’s swiftness and directness about keeping people informed about all this.  It bodes well, IMO.
  • There’s been some kind of problem with water, plumbing, leaking, etc. in the auditorium in the library for years, and along with this issue, I do have to wonder if there isn’t some kind of serious contractor/construction issue that is now making itself visible.  I’m not sure there’s much recourse at this stage since the building has been open for at least a dozen years now, but this might be something to follow.

Schatzel’s message after the jump:

Continue reading →

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Posted in Administrator Life, Buildings and Grounds, Halle Library

“Shit goes down” in Halle

Posted on January 19, 2012 by | 11 Comments

When I received new Provost Kim Schatzel’s email about the busted plumbing in Halle Library last night (see below for the full text of the message), I was reminded of a conversation I had with a neighbor of mine once.  This guy is a retired foreman from the Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority, Ypsi’s water and sewer provider.  For some reason, we were having an “over the backyard fence” conversation about remodeling basements and he was explaining to me why it’s never a good idea to spend a lot of money on a project like that.  ”We got a saying in the sewer business, Steve,” he said: “Shit goes down.”

The short version is it it seems a big drain pipe fell off of some supports in the basement and bad things happened.  Among other things, Provost Schatzel’s email says that the repairs are estimated to take a month (which I interpret as meaning at least a month, maybe more), and, during this reconstruction period, we can expect noise and “possibly odors.”  Ugh.  It sounds like it is just one of those terrible things that sometimes happens, but it also sounds like it’s going to be pretty unpleasant in Halle for a while.

Anyone working over there have any more insight?

By the way, I think this is the first email I’ve received from our new provost.  Welcome aboard, Kim!  See the full text after the jump.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Administrator Life, Buildings and Grounds, Halle Library

Halle closed due to water pipe break in the basement

Posted on January 16, 2012 by | 4 Comments

This just in from Geoff Larcom:

Halle Library is closed for the rest of today (Monday, Jan. 16) due to a major water pipe break in the basement. This closure also includes the IT Help Desk. Anyone needing to report a critical IT issue before 5 p.m. today can call the IT Office at Pray-Harrold at 7-3141.

The status of the library will be updated later today or early Tuesday.

Oh-oh.  And this is not the first somewhat suspicious water pipe break incident in that building, either.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds

“Michigan’s public universities see 24% increase in ‘unrestricted’ net assets”

Posted on January 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

From the freep.com comes “Michigan’s public universities see 24% increase in ‘unrestricted’ net assets.”  Maybe it’s just me, but this seems to be a pretty muddled and confusing article to me.  It seems to be saying that public universities in Michigan have a lot of extra cash on hand, but then it points out that this extra “unrestricted” money is being used for one-time expenses.  In fact, the picture leading this story is of the renovated Pray-Harrold.

So maybe it’s my simplistic sense of money, but I am not completely seeing what the point is here.

I will say two things though.  First, remodeling/renovating Pray-Harrold has been in the work for years and years, certainly over more than one budget cycle.  And I also don’t think you’re going to find anyone on campus who thinks that the work that was done was somehow frivolous, as I think the article is implying.  Second, I suspect that this argument will come back this year in contract negotiations, as well it should.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, In the media..., Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, State Government

Wind damage?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by | 1 Comment

IMG_0362I had to run an errand up at school today and on the way out of Pray-Harrold, I noticed this.  That’s a tree down between Porter and Pray-Harrold, I presume from those nasty winds we had the other day.  Hopefully, it’ll get cleaned up before Monday.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds

“Asbestos concerns”

Posted on December 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

From the Eastern Echo comes “Asbestos concerns.”  In my opinion, this is an article that “buries the lead” as they say in the journalism business, but basically, it would appear that there is some kind of asbestos problem in Pitman Hall and the information campaign about this hasn’t exactly been smart and savvy.  Here’s a quote:

Ellen Bernard, EMU’s Environmental Health and Safety Specialist in Snow Health Center thinks asbestos is just part of life. When questioned about whether or not there was, in fact, asbestos in the building Bernard dismissed the subject.

“So? There is asbestos in a whole lot of buildings on this campus,” Bernard said.

She then went on to say she would not discuss asbestos and walked away.

Answers like Bernard’s haven’t eased any fear in Pittman residents who have noticed the yellow asbestos ‘caution tape.’

And the article goes from there.

Now, it is true that asbestos in tiles and such is okay if left undisturbed.  That said, it seems to me that EMU probably owes students in the dorms a bit more of an explanation and concern than this.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, In the media..., Student Life

Kilpatrick spoke and…

Posted on November 29, 2011 by | 10 Comments

… not much happened, as far as I can tell.  Here’s a link to a Freep story about it; anyone there and/or hear anything else?

By the way, as far as the argument goes about transparency and state money and taxes and all of that:  I think that EMU did what it was obligated and should have done, and that’s that.  According to the Freep, B.L.A.C.K. paid 400 bucks for a plane ticket for Kilpatrick to speak and that was about it.  Big deal.

Furthermore, my concern as a professor would be to find out where the line is for this “call for transparency” and/or “accountability.”  For example, if I teach something in a class suggesting that maybe a communist-style state might not be such a bad idea, that we ought to heed the protests of the “Occupy” movements and consider systematic ways of redistributing wealth in this country, am I going to be called out because I’m teaching controversial issues on the tax dollar’s dime?  I would hope not.  So, while I’m no supporter of Kilpatrick, I don’t see what exactly is different about him coming in and talking about second chances and about how he was treated unfairly and all the rest.

Oh, there was one thing about the Freep story I didn’t get:

Kilpatrick did not address in specifics his current troubles. He is facing federal public corruption charges. He’s pled not guilty to those.

He walked away from a press conference following the speech when questions were raised about those charges and about allegations he had taken a $10,000 bribe in a bathroom.

Is this an old charge or is this something new?

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, EMU Events, In the media..., Student Life

Library “water incident” continues, probably not sewage

Posted on November 3, 2011 by | 1 Comment

One thing I suggested here yesterday that I am pretty sure turns out to be false:  the flood water incident probably wasn’t sewage, which is what I had originally heard.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is it looks pretty bad.

After the continued part, I include VP for Communication Walter Kraft’s full email he sent around earlier today.  Right after I received that message, I went up to my office and took a look around and a few pictures.  Here’s a link to the whole set of photos if you want to see it.

First off, it’s never a good sign to see a “catastrophic cleaning” truck parked out front.  But on the plus-side, I was expecting some sort of sewage/poo-like smell and I didn’t get that.  I didn’t get any kind of wet/mildewy smell either.  So that’s all good.

But it looks like the water damage was pretty extensive.  Half of the second floor was closed off, the rest rooms on the first floor were roped off, and the writing center is completely closed.  And it looks like it might be closed for a while.  This picture (which someone else took– this was all roped off from me) is the ceiling on the floor, which is not where it belongs.  Hard to say when that is going to be open again.

I also think the last sentence of Kraft’s release is kind of telling here:  ”The cause of the water leak, which originated in a ceiling sprinkler head in the men’s bathroom on the second floor, remains under investigation.”  Those are some interesting lines to read between.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Security and Safety