East Campus development questions answered, timeline provided
Mike Westfall, the vice president of University Advancement, sat down with The Oakland Post to assist in providing transparency for the potential East Campus development by answering questions and establishing a timeline.
Mike Westfall, the vice president of University Advancement, sat down with The Oakland Post to provide transparency for potential East Campus development by answering questions and establishing a timeline.
If all goes according to plan, Westfall said, a proposal will be presented to the university’s board of trustees in February 2023.
An exploration was launched in 2018-2019 to study potential ways to use the space known as East Campus — specifically the corner bordered by Adams Road and Walton Boulevard.
Westfall then took over, and a study was completed in early 2021 to see what the market said was the best use for the space.
An East Campus project discussion group was formed in March and April, 2022, which led to the stakeholder group whose goal is to provide feedback and assist in the process.
Other groups involved include the OU Work Group, Board of Trustees (BOT) Work Group and several campus community groups such as the Campus Alliance for Sustainability and the Environment (CASE), Campus Development Environmental Committee and the University Senate steering committee.
The study found the market for multi-family housing and the market for hotels and hospitality to be strong. The study also highlighted a market for an indoor performing arts center.
With this analysis, Westfall said the university wants to ensure if something does get built on East Campus, it ties into Oakland University’s values.
“From a mission standpoint, it needs to tie in directly or indirectly into the mission — which is tough,” Westfall said. “From a culture standpoint, whatever is done there needs to draw the campus to the corner, and it needs to draw the community to the corner. There are a lot of cool things on that side of campus, and it needs to compliment those things and bring people in together.”
Westfall also said preservation and sustainability are components that potential developers must consider. Every potential developer has been told to protect the wooded areas — such as the space used by TreeRunner — and they have each pledged their commitment to do so.
Sustainability has been a large concern for many students, faculty and alumni surrounding this development. Westfall said sustainability strategies are critical. Recently, President Ora Pescovitz and others held a Sustainability Awareness Rally on campus which welcomed protestors who pushed for sustainability to be a large part of whatever comes of East Campus.
“I appreciate the passion — I’m all for sustainability,” Westfall said. “I’ve done sustainability work in the past.”
Westfall is planning to meet with Oakland University’s Student Congress (OUSC) in October to discuss the current timeline of the project and how the conversations with developers have gone thus far. He will meet again with OUSC in November to obtain feedback on the project and provide another round of updates.
The Request for Qualifications submissions were due on Aug. 15, with OU subsequently reviewing those interested in the process and making sure they were qualified. This process brought it down to five developers who must submit a Request for Proposal by Nov. 23.
Finalists will be selected in December, and January will be used solely for obtaining feedback from all groups through an open house — which will seek community feedback, as well. The potential final step will be in February when everything is presented to the BOT.
The project must be able to support the university financially, but it has to be a large enough amount to make sense for the university to even go forward with the plan, Westfall said.
“It will generate revenue that can be used to support the university in other areas. How much that is and what that money would support, I don’t know,” Westfall said. “That’s the point of going through the proposals, because if it doesn’t pencil out and if what the university has to give up is too much, then it’s not worth it — but at least we’ll have run it out.”
Questions regarding whether now is a good time to look into developing East Campus — due to the university’s declining enrollment and budget — are commonly asked. Westfall said those are reasons why the university wishes to explore these revenue ideas.
“We have to be creative in exploring additional revenue opportunities, but it has to fit in and address all those other areas,” he said. “If we wanted to just sell it to the highest bidder, there would be a Costco there — but that’s not what we want to do. We want to create revenue that’s reasonable, and reasonable means that it has to check a lot of boxes. If it doesn’t, then it’s not worth doing.”
Westfall has said he wants to make sure the students are involved in the process from a feedback standpoint, and also down the road to potentially have engineering students and design students part of the execution process.
As more information becomes available and updates happen, Westfall said he wants to be as transparent as possible.
Whistles everywhere • Oct 28, 2022 at 1:26 PM
The other thing is that OU preaches sustainability. But, this development will be run by a third party. OU is simply going to collect rent from the activity.
Next Westfall will tell us, “Hey, we’re for sustainability. How can I know the property managers aren’t?” Really, dude. Did you ask anyone who lives in the subdivision across the street? The one surrounding Meadow Brook Elementary or West Middle School? It’s sad the Oakland Post is doing PR for OU, now. “jOUrnalism” at its best.
Whistles everywhere • Oct 28, 2022 at 1:19 PM
The thing that’s infuriating is this “study” was a marketing plan by a third party company. That company never did ANY study on our area at all. For instance, there are 4 hotels nearby. FOUR. And there’s a market? There are two multifamily housing within 3 miles of the site. There’s a market for that, too? Bullshit.
Plus, those committees involved? What did THEY say? Pretty sure they don’t have anything nice to say. They were marginally invited for input. THIS YEAR. So, ya know– AFTER– the so-called study was completed.
You want to know what this is really about? Follow the money. Follow who at OU is boing to benefit.
Former OU employee • Oct 25, 2022 at 9:42 AM
How would students get from campus to this grand shopping and entertainment space? It would be a long walk, right? Will OU suddenly develop a magical free bus system?
No hotels • Oct 20, 2022 at 4:30 PM
Every year it’s something new. This year administration wants to lease part of campus for profit while claiming to care about sustainability. Sustainability and boutique hotels do not go together. Everyone who has touched this plan is a part of the clown show.
Cancel EC • Oct 19, 2022 at 10:08 PM
This article feels more like a Westfall letter to the editor/opinion piece. This is not what transparency looks like. The East Campus plan has been developing for over a year, and this is the first they are telling the Post about it. I truly hope the media does its due diligence and prominently covers the rebuttal to this in the same fashion.
Truth is we want NO development of that corner.
Student • Oct 19, 2022 at 9:29 PM
If you have to jump through hoops trying to explain how this actually is somehow sustainable and what is best for our community and students…. It isn’t. Where is the inclusion of students in all of this “market research”? We can make the data collection on that easy for you, admin- STUDENTS DO NOT WANT THIS. Our future is worth more than your fortune. Cancel the East Campus Development.
Student • Oct 19, 2022 at 9:18 PM
Why are my tuition dollars going to a hotel?? No student wants this. Claiming to be “all for sustainability” yet moving through with this project is ironic. At this point the majority of OU will be golf courses and shopping malls.
L • Oct 19, 2022 at 6:35 PM
Since when has the market been known to be a good determinant of decision-making about anything? Isn’t our market-driven thinking part of what’s driving us to cliff’s edge in the first place? If you’re truly concerned about sustainability as you claim, you should know that the market, by its very nature, militates against ecological sustainability, because the market is about exploiting any parcel of land, woodlot, forest, etc. it finds “undeveloped” for profit until there are no more natural places left. Can we survive without boutique hotels, shopping malls, or performing arts centers? Hell, yes! But can we survive on a planet without trees? Certainly not!
J Adjunct Faculty • Oct 19, 2022 at 6:25 PM
The East Campus development project, at one level, is one more instance of university inertia in the face of an ever-encompassing corporate parasitism, taking over the planet, pushing more and more life into extinction. The science—that universities supposedly champion and advance—is very clear. We have to halt our lockstep march to the edge. Turn from what is driving us into catastrophic strip-mining and strip-extracting and strip-malling over recent centuries. And re-configure life as a sustainable symbiosis. For all of us living anything above poverty—individuals, neighborhoods, cities, universities, etc.—it means downsizing, learning to live with less, learning to take less of the natural world. For OU it means stopping the sprawl. If we do not learn to value woodlands over parking lots, stores and hotels—and learn how to teach why those natural lands are more valuable—then we have no business claiming to be educators. We are simply providing cover for the on-going corporate predation and billowing exhaust fumes out of our classroom mouths.
Green space • Oct 19, 2022 at 6:05 PM
I would love to see this area as a green space/park in which the community can enjoy and gather at. Restoration projects can be done, research can be done, and it would also elevate OU as a place people WANT to visit.
Student@OU • Oct 19, 2022 at 5:32 PM
Students DO NOT WANT THIS. ou is a school, NOT a shopping district.
Embarrassed to be a Grizzly • Oct 19, 2022 at 4:53 PM
Transparency at OU means usually means getting updates from administrators about decisions that have already made. This is a good example.
Debbie • Oct 19, 2022 at 4:32 PM
“From a mission standpoint, it needs to tie in directly or indirectly into the mission — which is tough,” Westfall said.
Shouldn’t this be the first clue that the entire endeavor is misbegotten? Mission creep can severely damage an organization. Stick to your mission and leave shopping strips and hotels to others.
This is a mistake • Oct 19, 2022 at 2:26 PM
He wants to make sure the students are involved and have feedback, but what student is going to support this? Everyone I have interacted with is opposed, and anyone else is likely going to be neutral at best. I do not know anyone who would support this. In addition, this won’t support students in any way. I’m all for multi-family housing, but assuming it’s permanent housing and not apartments, no student will buy in. The businesses are going to take a corner of campus which is beautiful to walk around and turn it into a car filled mess. For every building, it will have twice its size in parking lots. Do we really want to cover a forest and field in parking lots? There is no healthy way for this project to proceed.
If the university wants more money, make the college better. Give students a reason to enroll. Pay your teachers so they have more motivation. Do proper college things instead of running it into the ground because you think it’s a business.
StudentOU • Oct 19, 2022 at 2:24 PM
This is just Westfall spewing propaganda at this point. If you plan to develop all the area bordering the forest AND areas of the forest, there is no possible way you can “protect the wooded areas” as this interview states. Say what you want, but bulldozers and sustainability are not compatible.
SW • Oct 19, 2022 at 4:23 PM
Yes!
SW • Oct 19, 2022 at 11:33 AM
I don’t think he gets it. “I’m all for sustainability. I’ve done sustainability work in the past.” It’s not that easy. That’s a cop out remark.
Building almost anything affects/damages the environment – and even if you do everything you can to be sustainable, that is generally really expensive and requires upkeep and requires a lot of intention. That aside, even if you do that, you still just got rid of land and wildlife… for businesses that might be profitable but aren’t NEEDED. At that point, it just shows what your values are.
Other than making money, what is the point? We’re demolishing beautiful land that was given to OU (for OU) just for profit. It will no longer belong to the community of OU. This is disappointing and disgusting.
Concerned • Oct 19, 2022 at 9:55 AM
I wish that the university would also explore the very lands they wish to destroy. Are they aware of the diverse and threatened wildlife that live there?
Ghost Pipe, monitropa uniflora, calls the east campus forests home. This rare and threatened plant is beautifully haunting yet critically threatened in some areas. This plant relies on mycorrhizal relationships with native fungi and cannot be grown through horticultural methods – it only exists in healthy forests. With the destruction of the forests on East Campus, this rare plant will be exterminated and further threatened. This is just one example of many important elements of our local ecosystem that are at risk of being destroyed due to university greed.