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Printer-Friendly ModeHealth building a possibility in 2008
January 28, 2008 —
SVSU President Eric Gilbertson said that architectural planning could begin on a proposed health sciences building later this year in the annual State of the University address on Thursday.
The construction of the proposed instructional facility has been delayed by Michigan's ongoing revenue shortfall, which has prevented the state legislature from passing a budget that includes the kind of appropriations necessary for large-scale projects like teaching facilities.
Gilbertson said that the University could not begin construction on the facility until it had procured some state funding for the project.
"State funding is absolutely necessary for the proposed Health and Human Services Building," he said in an e-mail on Saturday. "We have been told that it will be included in the Governor's priority recommendations to the legislature this session."
The health sciences programs are booming at SVSU. According to institutional research data, 9.2 percent of undergraduates were enrolled in nursing programs in fall 2005, 11.3 in fall 2006, and 13.2 percent in fall 2007. The nursing college is currently housed on the second floor of Wickes Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus and the administrative building.
Gilbertson addressed the need for a new instructional facility in his address.
"We've been talking about this facility for a few years now and have needed it even longer," he said. "But bear in mind that none of the facilities previously completed - not the Regional Education Center, not the Pioneer Hall expansion, not the Science East expansion, not the library expansion, not this performing arts center - came in response to our first suggestion or first request."
Continued fiscal health of SVSU depends on continued strong enrollments
Despite the state's economic problems and Lansing's budgetary woes, SVSU continues to post strong enrollments across the disciplines, besides the gradual decline in the number of students in the teacher education programs.
"The sad truth is that even as a public institution we have become largely tuition dependent - which underscores the importance of enrollments to our fiscal health as well as our basic mission," Gilbertson said.
While student headcount was down in fall 2007, the number of credit hours being taken was up. This reflects an increase in the number of undergraduates and a slight drop in the number of graduate and teacher certification students. Undergraduates tend to take more classes than graduate students, driving the number of credit hours up.
Gilbertson belabored the point, arguing that continued growth is necessary for the long-term financial health of the institution, and that SVSU should expect continued gradual decreases in state funding.
"We shall need to chart our University's future without the expectation of significant additional support from the state of Michigan," he said. "Whatever the expressions of lofty goals and good intentions coming from Lansing, we had better not bank on much help coming up the road."
Gilbertson was critical of the state's tax structure and said that it was ill suited to Michigan' changing economy, and thus ill-equipped to support it's public institutions of higher education.
"The State of Michigan's tax structure is antiquated and inadequate," he said. "And this condition is exacerbated by an economic transformation that has been underway for at least three decades now and is yet still incomplete."
Michigan's legislature is still debating as to how replace the Single Business Tax, wh ich up until its expiration in 2007 was the state's primary source of revenue.
Governor Granholm has proposed a service tax on a variety of services from oil changes to movie tickets to replace the the majority of income that the Single Business Tax produced. Lansing's difficulties in passing a budget stem partially from intra-government disagree in deciding on a long-term replacement for the Single Business Tax.
The legislature is expected to act on her proposal this session.