LANSING - State Representative Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem) today called into question the Joint Capitol Outlay Committee's decision to omit state funding for critical infrastructural maintenance at Eastern Michigan University (EMU).
"To summarily reject funding necessary to maintain and restore safety in one of Michigan's largest classroom buildings shows a reprehensible lack of regard for the safety and well-being of the 10,000 students who pass through that building each and every day," said Smith. "This refusal to fund essential maintenance at Eastern is a prime example of Republican leadership using scarce state resources for political advantage. Rather than making the most of a much-touted Price of Government process, that leadership is failing to prioritize the our aging and dangerous academic infrastructure and spend accordingly. It is short-sighted, spiteful and simply outrageous!"
Since 1999, Eastern Michigan University has sought to secure funding to modernize and bring into code the 36 year-old Pray-Harrold Building. Last November, EMU again requested funding to renovate the building that houses classrooms for roughly 10,000 students a day and was built long before there was a need to provide basic access to computers and Internet-based learning tools.
The project is estimated to require $31 million in new state funding and would update the building's antiquated and unsafe elevators, repair and replace critical structural and mechanical systems, address all life safety and ADA code issues, and modernize the building's outdated wiring to meet the growing needs of new academic technologies.
Republican leaders, choosing to make an example of EMU for the much-publicized budget gaffe involving the University House project, refused to consider any funding for critical maintenance at Pray-Harrold.
"They are not making an example of EMU, they are penalizing today's students who spoke out against the previous administration and actively sought positive change. What kind of message does that send?" said Smith. "The fact of the matter is you cannot expect students to attain the necessary tools needed to compete and succeed in the 21st century when you force them to attend classes in unsafe and wholly inadequate classrooms. It would be like limiting your accountant to an abacus -- it goes against basic, common sense. It contradicts everything we are trying to do with regard to education, economic development and job training."