The Michigan Daily, Thursday, September 1U, 1987/- Page 5
'U'
grows under building boom
By ANDREW McCUAIG
Reflecting similar trends in the city,
construction on campus seems to be
everywhere. Although blockades and pile of dirt
indicating construction cover the campus, two
construction sites stand out as the most
prominent - the site of the new chemistry
building adjacent to the current chemistry
building and the site of the swimming and
diving facility on Hoover St.
University officials say the construction of
these new facilities is an attempt to upgrade the
athletic and chemistry departments as well as to
improve the overall quality of the University.
The construction of the new swimming pool
at the edge of the University's athletic campus
began late last fall and is well on its way to
meeting its scheduled completion date of fall
'89. Across campus at one end of the Diag, a
large hole has been dug to accommodate the
construction of the Chemistry Building
addition. Begun last September, the four-storey
structure should be finished by March '89.
UNTIL that time, students living in the
hill dormitories will continue to be diverted
around the site but will be rewarded for their
troubles by witnessing first-hand the daily
progress of the building which administrators
hope will bring the chemistry department up
from its current national rank of 30.
"The Chemistry Department has had sub-par
facilities for many years," University Architect
Richard Glissman said. "Sub-par for (the Uni -
versity) anyway."
According to Chemistry Lab Director Jack
Novodoff, the new building will have four
floors and will be connected to the old building
by a series of "bridges" at every floor. The
basement will contain teaching labs, general
chemistry labs, and organic chemistry labs.
T H E first floor will hold a 500-seat
auditorium as well as a computing center, and
Novodoff said the remaining floors will be used
primarily for student and faculty research.
The new building will also provide more and
larger office spaces and will allow many
professors and graduate students a chance to
move into offices and research labs.
Once the new building is completed,
renovation will begin on the old one. The
process will take anywhere from two to five
years, but the building will still be used during
this period.
ALTHOUGH the athletic department may
seem to be the most well endowed of all
University departments, athletic department
officials say the pool and diving facility will be
a necessary improvement.
Neither the University or Ann Arbor has an
Olympic size pool. The current University
pool, neighboring Matt Mann Pool, is only 25
meters in length.
"Indiana has a wonderful Olympic facility,"
Glissman says. "So does Michigan State, and
even Eastern (Michigan). It's something we
need in order to remain competitive."
THE new pool will be 50 meters in length
and will contain a diving facility with platforms
of varying heights ranging from 10 meters to
one meter.
According to Linda Cargo of LSA
Development office, the total cost of the
Chemistry Building addition and the renovation
of the old building was originally expected to
run $60 million. But due to the elimination of.
a proposed underground library, the final cost
will ring in at roughly $52 million. Cargo
declined to comment on why plans for the
library was scrapped.
Cargo also said the funds for the building
have come primarily from state appropriations
and private donations. She said the state has
agreed to pay $30 million while private
donations will cover the remaining the $20
million, but $4.3 million in donations remains
to be raised.
Cargo said the majority of private donations
have come from large companies and foun -
dations such as Dow Chemical, the Kellogg
Foundation, Procter and Gamble Co., and the
Kresge Foundation.
The new pool will be almost totally financed
by the Athletic Department, which Glissman
said is "totally different from any other
department" since the athletic department
generates most of its budget from revenue made
off spectator sports.
Aside from these two building, other
structures are also under construction on
campus. Among these are the Medical Center
parking structure on the corner of Glen and Ann
Streets and the Medical Science Research
Building located on the medical campus.
Daily Photo by MARY CHRIS JAKLEVIC
The rafters of the new swimming and diving facility under construction
between the Intramural Sports Building and Revelli Hall tower above one
of the workers.
Many GEO members still unsatisfied
-i
By CATHERINE KIM
In an impressive display of
solidarity marked by rallies in the
Diag, University-employed graduate
students threatened to strike last
April if their union, the Graduate
Employees Organization, and the
University could not come to terms
on such GEO demands as tuition
waivers, pay increases, limited class
size, and paid TA training.
Although TAs will eventually
receive tuition waivers and paid
training from the University, many
GEO members are still dissatisfied
with the settlement which doesn't
include pay hikes or decreased class
sizes.
According to former GEO
steering committee chair Alice
Haddy, the waivers were regarded as
a major step, but she added, "We do
deserve better, but we did the best
we could."
William Shea, a GEO office
manager, said that TAs and graduate
research assistants, ranked seventh
in the Big Ten in the amount of
benefits they receive, will receive
the waiver in full in two years. It
will only be a 44 percent waiver,
however.
Shea also said the threat of a
strike was integral in prompting the
University to take the GEO's
demands more seriously. He said
the University originally wanted to
set aside roughly $750,000 for both
pay increases and tuition waivers,
but when GEO members threatened
to strike, the University raised that
amount to $1.5 million which
most TAs voted go toward tuition,
waivers.
However, Shea said GEO
members were disappointed their
other demands were not met and
that these demands will probably be
the points of discussion when the
contract talks resume in 1989.
"When we come to the table in two
years, pay increases will probably
be at the top of our list, unless the
University decides to dramatically
increase class sizes in that time,"
Shea said.
Overcrowded classes have been
and continue to be a problem Shea
said. "Some economics TAs have
as many as 50 students in a class,"
he said.
According to Shea, the demand
for limited class size is not
unreasonable. "Rutgers (University)
has departmentally set class size
limits." He said the University
should follow a similar practice
since, according to Shea, "We are
UM News in
The Daily
764-0552
always comparing our status to
other schools."
Some TAs were disappointed the
GEO accepted the contract even
though some of their demands had
been met. Lee Redding, a computer
science TA, said he was surprised
that the GEO "gave in" to the
University. "Up to the last minute,
the steering committee said they
wouldn't take anything less. When
they made up their minds to accept
the contract, Alice Haddy said 'it
was a major victory."'
Other TAs, however, were
surprised the University gave as
much as it did. Chemistry TA Brian
Shull said, "I really thought the
university didn't have enough
money. Even though the TAs arc
hard up, I didn't think our tuition
would be waived."
SOPH SHOW,
MUSKET,
JOIN THE
C AST
Haddy
... feels GEO deserves more
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