“[Sangren] has been one of the most challenging conversations of the last few months,” said President John Dunn to the assembled students and administrators at his Open Forum 22 February.
In the lounge of Lee Honors College a few weeks ago President Dunn had his traditional Open Forum sponsored by the Western Student Association. Over 50 people, including Provost Tim Greene, Vice President Diane Anderson, students from Aviation Student Council, WSA, and an Honors Leadership course attended the forum to address concerns. The question of Sangren, almost inevitably, came up.
The strong sentiment that came from President Dunn’s remarks on Sangren, and on related issues like the impending cuts to higher education funding, was plain. The pride and commitment behind even a simple affirmation, “We are Broncos,” was plain to read: we will not give up.
“We have a strategy working through the Capitol,” President Dunn told those assembled. While he admitted his response was cagey, he also admitted he was mindful of the presence of the press at the forum. “Let’s just keep our fingers crossed.”
WSA’s Political Affairs Committee has several ideas floating around about how best to use the voice of the student population. The Committee has already prepared legislation to assist lobbying Lansing in favor of Sangren funding, as an attempt to support the strategy vaguely announced by President Dunn at his open forum.
No matter what anyone’s feelings on the project, there are two important things we all have in common: we all want to see New Sangren completed, and every student at Western wants to know the truth behind the layers of fiction. Perhaps the only functionless mass taller than the Sangren Pile of Dirt and Snow is the misinformation surrounding it.
In his State of the Association Address 12 January, WSA President Aaron Booth commented on the rumor mill relating to the construction of new Sangren. President Booth said to students that the rumor of a tuition increase, along with a series of other rumors, needed to be dispelled.
Booth assured students that reports of a 3% levy on tuition based on Sangren was far more fiction than fact. According to Booth, the university has made no decision on the inclusion of Sangren in tuition, and while some tuition increase is inevitable, a large contingent of the student leadership urged the Board of Trustees to not factor Sangren into tuition. Moreover, the projection is that if Sangren were to be added to tuition, the amount it would cost would be closer to a 2% increase than the 3% reported by some sources.
According to both Presidents Dunn and Booth, a variety of circumstances led to the current problems. Western Michigan University sought to take advantage of low costs on construction and broke ground before the funding for the second phase of the project was secured, based on a promise made to Western by the State of Michigan Legislature, specifically, State Senator Michelle A. McManus.
Things went wrong when local State Senator Tom George voiced his opposition to the bill that would give Western this funding. President Dunn attempted to convince Senator George to be “less vocal” in opposition so as not to jeopardize the funding of the Sangren project. Senator George, however, was convinced that the bill would fail, and that Western’s funding would be on it when it did. According to President Dunn, WMU was informed literally in the middle of the night that the bill would pass, and would not include Western’s funding.
There is a lot of blame to go around. Blame is not, however, going to solve any problems. “It’s time that we put our energy together and focus it on more constructive ways,” President Booth reminded students.
President Dunn confessed to the attendees of the forum that he sometimes asks himself: “Are we just that resilient, that we can take whatever comes and not give up?” He said that construction would not be stopped unless it absolutely had to be. Not only is it best, by far, for all of the university that Sagren’s construction continue, but the construction workers, contractors and employees waiting on a new meeting all have families to feed.
Regardless of our current financial challenges both in terms of Sangren and excessive cuts from Governor Rick Snyder’s proposed budget, Dunn said with confidence that fifty years from now, WMU will still be here. Even in our darkest days, he told the attendees, “It is a great day to be a Bronco.”
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