Eastern Michigan students campaign against using university dollars for $35 million football facility – NBCSports.com

Fresh off the program’s first bowl trip in nearly 30 years, Eastern Michigan has announced plans to build a new facility that would include a new building with practice fields for the football and soccer programs, an indoor track, an improved weight room, up to 10 new football suites and a new football scoreboard, at the cost of $35 million. While it sounds like the idea is still is in its beginning stages — the EMU board was briefed in February and will discuss the topic again next month — the school says it has $9 million already raised toward the project. It’s a giant leap from less than a year ago, when EMU was forced to release a statement saying it is not dropping football.

This, of course, leaves another $26 million to be raised. And the EMU student government has come out swinging against the idea of the student body funding any of that remaining $26 million.

EMU student president Tanasia Morton and vice president Joshua Starr made the argument in a join statement on the group’s Facebook page.

We must, however, make clear that Student Government did not intend to, nor do we, support using any University funds for a multi-million dollar renovation of our athletic facilities outside of the plans to renovate the Rec/IM. To be clear, any renovations or additions to any of the University’s athletics facilities as part of this $35 million plan, aside from the Rec/IM, must be completely funded by outside donors.

We strongly support the strides our student athletes have made in our history as a University. Many of our collegiate teams, such as track and field, swimming, and gymnastics are the best in the MAC. We are proud to support these programs and confident that the significant investments contemplated in the Regents’ plan can be funded with the support of generous donors. However, Student Government WILL NOT support any renovations to the athletic facilities as a part of this $35 million plan, outside of the Rec/IM, that involve a single cent of University dollars.

See the full post below:

As of now, Eastern Michigan has stated it doesn’t plan on using university dollars toward the project. “We haven’t committed any money (from the university’s general fund). We’re focused on fund-raising,” EMU board of regents member Michelle Crumm told the Detroit Free-Press.