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." 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