KALAMAZOO

— Western Michigan University was dealt a disappointment when

by the state Legislature excluded money for the university’s $60 million rebuild of the Sangren Hall classroom building, a project already underway.

A WMU executive said he feels the university was let down by Kalamazoo-area legislators who voted against the $969 million in construction projects for state universities and community colleges. The institutions and the state share in that cost, with state picking up $383 million.

“We put the shovel in the ground on Sangren on the commitment that (funding would be approved) ... and our local legislators were going to be there to stand behind this and help support this, particularly (Sen.) Tom George,” said Greg Rosine, WMU’s senior vice president for advancement and legislative affairs.

Just weeks ago the Sangren project was in House and Senate capital-outlay bills, but Rosine said it was easy for other legislators to later take it out without strong support from the Kalamazoo-area delegation.

Sen. Cameron Brown, R-Fawn River Township, did try to offer an amendment to include WMU’s project but that effort failed.

“We really got screwed on this one,” Rosine said.

WMU officials knew the university might not get all the state funding it sought but decided go ahead with the Sangren project anyway.

building also did not make it into the bill that passed Friday, the final day of the legislative session.

Some local legislators, including Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Antwerp Township and Rep. James Bolger, R-Marshall, tried to get the KVCC project in as an amendment, calling it the Robert B. Jones culinary institute, after the late Kalamazoo lawmaker. But that effort failed too.

George said on Monday that WMU officials knew that he would not the support the capital-outlay bill.

In comments from the Senate floor last week, George called the big expenditure “fiscally unwise.”

“It will encumber the state budget for the next 17 years with an additional $38 million per year debt load when the state can least afford it,” he said.

George told the Kalamazoo Gazette that while the Sangren project has merit, the state’s too broke to be spending that kind of money.

“Why are we on the last day of the Legislature maxing out the state’s credit card,” he said.

The bill — without WMU and KVCC projects — passed the Senate, 25 to 7 with George, Brown, and Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks ultimately voting against it. In the House, the legislation passed 56 to 38. Schuitmaker voted against the version that passed.

Sangren Hall, WMU’s most heavily used classroom building, has been on the university’s list of projects seeking state capital outlay funding for years.

The state did authorize about $11.7 million for Sangren in 2008 — which George helped secure — and WMU officials have said all along that they considered that an installment.

George at the time called it a “good start” for WMU, but said Monday that the state’s financial situation has changed since then.

Earlier this year, while still making a plea for more state support,

In testimony this past spring, WMU President John M. Dunn told the Michigan Higher Education House Appropriations Subcommittee: “My board has already said, ‘We cannot wait. We’ve waited 20 years. We can’t wait any longer.’ So we’re going to do it, and if we do it and we have to bond ourselves — and indebt ourselves — we all know what happens.

“It’s going to translate to another 3 percent in tuition adjustment to our students to carry that,” Dunn said.

Including site work, the total project cost is $69 million. Officials broke ground in June.

Contact Paula M. Davis at

or 269-388-8583.