The graduate student leadership and university administration are still split over an alleged 14-year-old promise to build a graduate student center on the campus.
But the money that was supposed to fund the project is going toward a good cause, both sides now agree.
The 30 percent chunk of income from rent payments at the Graduate Gardens and Graduate Hills – money the Graduate Student Government says was committed to the proposed center – is going toward badly needed upgrades at both housing complexes.
GSG President Laura Moore said she is pleased with the improvements and gave credit to Linda Clement, the university’s vice president for student affairs, for channeling the money toward graduate students. Clement was not in a position to make decisions about the center in 1994, when the initial promise was made.
“Under her leadership, the money has been spent appropriately,” Moore said.
That doesn’t mean Moore and Clement are any closer to seeing eye to eye on the formerly proposed graduate center.
“This was a $13.5 million broken promise,” Moore said.
Not so, argues Clement, who repeated the university’s claim at a GSG meeting last week that no commitment was ever signed. “There were no promises,” Clement said in an interview. “That’s a pretty strong word to be using. There was just a press release.” She pointed out that a contract was never drawn up, and the press release listed a number of possibilities for using income from rent money at the graduate housing complexes.
Over the years, the $13.83 million collected has wound up going toward construction of the Alumni Center, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and other projects.
Moore said she’s happy with the university spending the money on improvements to the Graduate Gardens and Graduate Hills. The funds have been used to buy blue light phones and voice and data jacks for the apartments and will be spent on a sprinkler system this summer, Clement said.
The sprinkler system is a long overdue improvement, according to Moore.
“It’s unthinkable there are no sprinklers at these properties,” Moore said. “It’s 2008.”
GSG members say more work needs to be done, though.
“The apartments are quite terrible,” said Anupama Kothari, the GSG’s vice president of financial affairs. Kothari said the apartments are pest-infested and unsafe.
Although Clement insists there was no firm commitment, the university did spend time and money examining possibilities for the center.
Andy Fellows, the GSG president in 1994 and a former city councilman, was flown to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to look at their Graduate Student Center. He was also a member of a committee that examined potential sites and plans for the center. Fellows has said in the past he thought there was an agreement.
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