The Oakland Post had the opportunity to speak with President Gary Russi about future plans for Oakland University including housing and new building projects.

Q: Do you have any comment on tuition and why it continues to increase? 

A: Tuition is always an issue that’s troubling because the cost of education continues to increase. The fortunate thing is every year we index tuition increase to tuition aid. Every dollar we increase in tuition, we put the same amount of money in financial aid. We try to make sure it’s affordable for the students. We understand we have to keep it as low as possible. We have emergency loan funds and a summer program in which students work on internships at the university. The key thing is no (hidden) fees. We try to help students have a more affordable experience here, so we said ‘no fees.’

Q: What do you plan to do with the housing situation?

A: Expand it. There is a project we want to do immediately. It has been discussed at the Board of Trustees level. It has been deferred and the board will pick the question up. There’s a subcommittee of board members and staff looking at that now and it will come back. What I appreciate is student advocacy, student liaisons and student leaders have been real strong advocates for housing. We want to put 4,000 students on campus. This involves multiple projects over the next several years. It’s really cool — it forms a quad around the upper playing field. The question will be called at board level this fall for the first phase.

Q: Enrollment has increased 42 percent since 1995. What are the key ingredients to upping enrollment numbers?

A: There are two key factors. The first is to work hard to ensure the experience at Oakland is of quality and you gain visibility for that quality. This is through being in the press, in disciplines within the university and scientific organizations all over the country. You have to have a strong foundation and the faculty and staff have built that. The second factor is to talk about it and become visible in Southeast Michigan. We make sure we are always out there — OU’s name is always out so people start to look at Oakland as a potential higher education.

Q: Where do you see Oakland University going in 5-10 years?

A: Five years is the best we can look at now. We anticipate more growth. For example, our current application for this coming fall is already up 18 percent.

Q: Are there any new building plans for the near future? 

A: We are in the planning stage for a College of Arts and Sciences Performing Arts building. We are ready to put final touches on planning and architectures will be meeting with us over the summer to put the design together. We will submit that as our next priority for buildings from the state. On top of that, we want student housing … we want to move the project as quick as possible.