Category Archives: Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool

“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

A couple of passing pictures from today’s Pray-Harrold Dedication

Posted on September 20, 2011 by | 7 Comments

When I came into school this morning, there was a Pray-Harrold dedication ceremony going on in the student commons/Eagle Cafe area. So I thought I’d share a couple of iPhone pictures and thoughts.

I was too late to get a seat for the festivities even if I wanted one; it was packed:

Pray-Harrold Speakers in the Student Commons

I’m not sure who is speaking here, but sitting behind that person are members of the Board of Regents and (on the far right) the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Tom Venner.  I’m sure great things were said, blah-blah-blah.

Anyway, I was hanging around outside the commons area where there was a table with the photos and these very odd “keepsakes” for today’s event:


That’s a paper fortune teller game of the sort I recall vaguely as a child.  You know, you fold this thing up, you put it on your fingers, you pick a number, flick your fingers that many times, and then pull up the fold to find your fortune.  For example, under here, you have the fortune “you will be a millionaire” and “the main stage is your future.”

Oh, and the whole thing came in a little “TRUEMU” box.  I can’t imagine who signed off on this or why, but I have to say this is about the goofiest marketing promotional thing I’ve ever seen.  Doing no promo work at all probably would have been more effective.

Anyway, as I was walking away with my paper fortune teller memento, I snapped this picture of construction that was going on not 30 feet away from the dedication:

But the construction continues

Of course there are things that will be works in progress/under construction in Pray-Harrold for a while; I think everyone understands that.  But I have to say it is a little strange for there to be a BoR “let’s congratulate ourselves and everyone else for a job well done” sort of ceremony while a construction guy is reattaching a bulletin board in the hallway.

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Posted in Board of Regents, Buildings and Grounds, EMU Events, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool

It’s the little things….

Posted on August 31, 2011 by | 12 Comments

That should be "Men's Restroom"The first day of classes has come and gone in the new/old Pray-Harrold, and for the most part, things have gone reasonably well.  All of my main complaints have nothing to do with the construction but rather with the local EMU folk who have in various forms dropped the ball:  the keys (OMG, the keys, the keys!), the less than ideal computer lab stuff, “lost” furniture, some of the less than brilliant class scheduling moves, etc.  Sure, the building is still under construction and there is a lot of dust and “new construction” smell about (carpeting, plastic things, paint), but it really is totally workable and it is considerably less “stinky” now than it was.  When I asked one of my classes today what they noticed different, one student responded “it’s like there’s air moving around in here.”  Very true.

Still, there are some little things that bug me.

  • Why are apostrophes on signs so hard?  The rule is not one=man, two=men, three or more=mens. (I paraphrased/stole that from a colleague of mine).  It should be “men’s restroom;” how come no one working in signage has an English major on staff?
  • Speaking of the restrooms:  the air dryers in there sound and feel like a freakin’ jet engine, and besides being deafening loud, it more or less limits washing hands to a single file, which isn’t always terribly practical.  I might have to bring some paper towels in from home.
  • As several students and colleagues pointed out, the same old elevators don’t help moving around the building much.  Oh, and if you are new to Pray-Harrold:  there are stairs!  You don’t automatically need to take the elevator to go from floor 2 to floor 3, for example.
  • This might be my imagination, but I swear that the classroom I taught in today maintained a temperature balance by blowing warmish air out of one vent and coldish air out of the other.  It was an odd sensation.
  •  Lots of students still sitting around in the hallways, which was something that the building architects were trying to address in different ways, apparently to no avail.  Yet.  A radical idea:  benches?
  • And lots of weirdly placed/missing stuff in the move.  I was in a classroom looking at something and noticed a mini microwave and a box in a corner.  It turned out to be a colleague’s of mine who had been looking everywhere for it.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, Staff Life

When will an “annoying inconvenience” move into “keymageddon”?

Posted on August 30, 2011 by | 9 Comments

I hesitate posting this because, as I commented earlier, I think the adjectives of “ashamed” and “outrage” are a little over the top at this point about the key snafus.  There’s a need for everyone to go into tomorrow’s grand opening of Pray-Harrold for classes with a little bit of optimism and lots of patience.  On the plus-side, I think there are many features in the building that will make it a much more comfortable space for learning and working, and while there will obviously be construction folks doing various construction things for the rest of the semester and adjusting temperatures and everything else, it is pretty impressive how much they’ve been able to accomplish in less than a week.  No one would confuse Pray-Harrold with a “brand new” building, but it’s a heck of a lot nicer than it was, and if you had never been in Pray-Harrold before, you’d wonder why people complained so much about it.

So thumbs up to all that, and patience-patience-patience, happy-thoughts, happy-thoughts, happy-thoughts.

However, I think that the powers that suits at all levels better be aware that there’s a fine line between faculty, staff, and students tolerating a few problems and… well, not.

I wasn’t at the College of Arts and Sciences meeting today in part because I was wrestling with the schizophrenic copier/scanner (that’s nothing new, btw), but I heard President Martin was there and among other things joked about the lack of keys.  Ha.  Ha-ha.

I did run into a guy from the physical plant today in Pray-Harrold who was there to deal with keys.  He seemed like a nice and earnest guy and all, but I did not get a sense from him that he had any idea of the extent of the problem.  There are around 150 people in my department (once you count up all the graduate assistants, part-timers, lecturers, faculty, and staff), and as far as I can tell, there are two keys to open up all those offices.  And don’t get me started talking about getting into locked classrooms and computer labs.

Anyway, everyone knows there are going to be problems and hopefully people are bracing for it as best they can.  I think if the key issues are mostly resolved by early next week, this will all be forgotten.  But what I worry about is that the key shop and the physical plant are so overwhelmed that they simply cannot complete this work without subcontracting some of it on an emergency basis, and that’s money I am certain the administration is going to do all it can to avoid spending.  And if the key problems linger on into September, well, I have a feeling these are problems that will be remembered and adjectives like “outrage” will be more appropriate and nouns like “grievance.”    And key snafus have a way of causing all kinds of problems.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, Staff Life

Pray-Harrold open– sort of

Posted on August 24, 2011 by | 22 Comments

Today was the first day that faculty/lecturers/part-timers/graduate assistants could get into Pray-Harrold officially and start setting up offices and the like.  The good news (from my point of view, at least) is the offices are much nicer, the furniture is a nice touch, the internet was zippy, and (more or less) my stuff showed up from Hoyt.

The bad news?  For starters, let’s just say that while I have no doubt that by January 2012 things will be running like a top in that building, I have a feeling the first day of classes is going to be “fluster-cluck” of biblical proportions.  There is A LOT to do in a week, and come first thing in the morning on August 31, there’s going to be about 10,000 people tromping through there, which will make the finishing touches on construction challenging I am certain.

Adding to the “excitement” of the start of classes will be a maze of construction around the building and all over campus.  The southwest entry to Pray-Harrold (the one closest to Porter) is still under construction, and since that whole corner is blocked off, if it’s not done by next week, it could be a long detour for some to get into the building.  (By the way:  they took down that concrete column that groups painted for different things and they’re setting up that corner to cut down on the graffiti too).

And then there’s parking messes all over campus too.

Oh, and my own personal little adventure is it would appear that I am unlikely to have a key to my office anytime soon.  All of which is to say that patience will be needed for a while.

Any other Pray-Harrold adventures of late?

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool

A job for the missing apostrophe patrol in the remodeled Pray-Harrold

Posted on August 16, 2011 by | Leave a comment

A regular EMUTalk reader sent me this image from the currently quasi-opened/under construction Pray-Harrold Hall.  Clearly, this is potentially a job for someone, perhaps the Apostrophe Abuse folks, perhaps someone with a black sharpie.  Or perhaps this is one of the things that will be corrected/changed as we get ready to move in officially.

I say “quasi-opened/under construction” because there are lots of secretaries, PT, and administrators working in the building right now as the finishing touches continue.  I happened to be in the building today and it was a busy place– with lots to do.  Don’t get me wrong– what is done looks pretty good.  But as I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago, it is definitely going to be a race to get things open for the beginning of classes, and there is certainly going to be a lot of finishing touches (painting, polishing, fixing some signs, etc.) going on after the building opens, too.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool

Pray-Harrold in Exile: The end/beginning is near

Posted on August 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I really am still on “summer break” from the blog (sorta, kinda) and I will be retreating to a secret fortress of solitude a bit next week, so don’t expect much to happen here.  But I thought I’d write a bit today about a tour of the nearly remodeled Pray-Harrold I went on last week.

It’s been quite the journey.  Just about 3 years ago, I thought we’d have an amusing time trying to guess about renovation work that would never actually begin.  I started going to meetings (off and on) about the project as a representative for my department, meetings that were at times important and interesting and at other times mind-numbing and frustrating.  All along the way, just about everyone I talked to about the project expressed all sorts of doubts, second guesses, and cynicism.  I mean, when I was at a meeting about a year ago where the construction guys said that they guaranteed that we would be back in the building for the fall 2011 semester, no one believed that.

But here we are, almost done.

They were kind of picky about us not taking pictures and video on the tour, so while I did actually take a couple pictures of some of the finished offices they showed us, I won’t be sharing them here.  But I must say what we saw that was finished (the seventh floor) was pretty impressive, with all new floors, walls, lighting, doors, furniture, windows, etc.  I think the best comparison without pictures I can make is the remodeled Mark-Jefferson:  not luxurious or anything, but still quite nice.

So surprisingly, this is likely to turn out after all.  Oh sure, it’s far from perfect.  In hindsight, I think it probably would have made more sense for EMU to get money to renovate some old dorms like Jones/Goddard into office space and thus have more classroom space in Pray-Harrold.  The renovations are nice, but the budget did not allow for all the changes that many folks wanted, and it doesn’t make the building any bigger.  Interestingly though, the move out of Pray-Harrold into various “swing spaces” on campus has resulted in what is likely to be some permanent moves out of the building, which will help make PH seem a bit “bigger” and make better use of less used offices and classrooms on campus.

And moving out of the building entirely turned out to be a very very good idea.  I overheard some of the construction workers talking at the tour and the consensus was it would have taken at least another 16 months to finish the project if it could have been done at all.

Moving back in might prove to be pretty chaotic.  We’ve heard some mixed messages about the process for packing and preparing, faculty will more or less be “homeless” from August 12 to August 24 or so, and even though we are indeed moving back in this fall, that doesn’t mean that construction will necessarily be done.  You know those “extreme makeover” shows where they are putting on the last coat of paint right just a few minutes before the deadline?  It’s going to be a lot like that.

But again, I’m just surprised that the project got started and then completed at all.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool, Staff Life, Student Life

Pray-Harrold in Exile: Touring the construction

Posted on January 23, 2011 by | 3 Comments

A couple Fridays ago, I went on a tour with other members of the Pray-Harrold input committee of the construction in process.  A colleague took this video with is iPhone and you can hear us bantering a bit back and forth during it.  It’s only 1:25 long, so take a look– not a big commitment.

I don’t think it quite captures completely the experience of going through the building, but it does convey a couple of important things about this project.  One of the fears many expressed about doing construction in Pray-Harrold was that so much of the project would be infrastructure that people wouldn’t really notice much of a difference.  I think this video suggests that isn’t true.  Besides the major changes on the second floor (what is actually the “main” floor because of the way the building works), all the walls, floors, ceilings, windows, doors, and other kinds of fixtures are new.  In faculty offices, those well-hated plugs in the middle of the floor are gone.  (Incidentally, while on the tour, I asked one of the construction foreman guys who was showing us around why those plugs were there and if they were– as I had long suspected– some kind of mistake or retrofit to those offices.  He said no, that that’s just the way they would do stuff like that back then to save money.  Go figure.)

Anyway, the whole project looked pretty extensive and impressive, and I have to say that everything about this so far has turned out surprisingly well.  The project started earlier than we thought it would, the move out of Pray-Harrold for faculty and staff went off with few hitches, teaching outside of Pray-Harrold hasn’t been such a bad thing for most people, and it would appear that the construction folks have not run into any unexpected problems.  So, so far, so good.

The one thing that gives me pause still is that the construction people are still adamant that they will be done and moving us back into the building in August.  Now, on the one hand, they’ve pretty much delivered on everything else up to this point.  But on the other hand, I don’t think there has ever been a contractor in the history of the planet who has actually finished on time– or at least I don’t know anyone who has ever hired a contractor to do stuff around the house who has ever finished on time.  And besides, as the video makes clear, there’s A LOT of work to do.  About 40 or so seconds in, there’s a freakin’ backhoe kind of think digging out the floor in one of the lecture halls!

So, I dunno we’ll see.  I want to believe the construction folks, but I also am glad to know that there is thought being given to a “plan B” if things run a month or two late.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool

Pray-Harrold in Exile: Even the one room schoolhouse getting used

Posted on November 27, 2010 by | 1 Comment

I came across this article in freep.com this morning: “EMU students get old-school education in one-room schoolhouse.” It’s really a story about the Pray-Harrold renovations and the ways EMU has found some unexpected space for classrooms, but I like the hook of the opening paragraphs:

Some of Peggy Daisey’s college students had to do a double take when they got their class schedules this year. Right there, next to the name of their Reading 311 class, was an unusual location.

It said “one-room schoolhouse.”

“I thought it was a typo,” said Lora Decaria, 31, a student in Daisey’s class at Eastern Michigan University.

But it wasn’t. A major renovation project that has shut down EMU’s largest classroom building meant officials had to look far and wide for places to hold classes. They found some unusual spots: residence hall lounges, a former bowling alley and conference rooms in the physical plant.

It’s worth pointing out that some of these spaces aren’t quite as unusual as the story is implying.  For example, the classrooms on the lower level of McKenney are very much a former bowling alley; it’s not like students are sitting in those plastic chairs around the scorer’s table and listening to a teacher standing in the lanes.  That space has all been remodeled into a suite of very nice classrooms.

Anyway, one of the benefits of the Pray-Harrold in exile experience has been what I personally see as a better use of resources and classroom space.  I mean, having classes in the one room schoolhouse seems kind of like cool thing to me, and if it weren’t for the Pray-Harrold renovation, there’s a bunch of other spaces at EMU (including what was the bowling alley closed long ago) that would still be largely unused.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, In the media..., Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool

Pray-Harrold in Exile: Yep, lots of construction going on…

Posted on November 8, 2010 by | 2 Comments

There’s an article in annarbor.com that more or less sums up what we all know: “Eastern Michigan University invests $205 million in improving facilities.” Like I said, it more or less just recounts how much is being spent where.  We’ve been rebuilding/rehabbing plenty over the last dozen years or so– new library, new student center, remodeled College of Education and Boone Hall, etc., etc.– but it sure seems like it’s a lot more now.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, In the media..., Pray-Harrold Renovation Pool