Friends of East Campus versus the World, pt. 1 (without meaningful interviews)

Dear all, I'm trying to organize an interview with Sharon Carlson, the former head of archives in East Hall and the last woman to teach in the building, to fill out this story. All of the numbers are all well and good, but without a meaningful voice of someone who worked there, the story is boring. I have a number that was updated in mid-2012, but tracking her down is tricky because I'm not sure if she's still with the University. In 2009, though, she did an interview and walk-through of East Hall with the WMU newspaper, so I'm hoping, if she's still at WMU, she'll be able to give me a tour.

As a backup, I'm arranging interviews with some of the members of FOHEC, and I'll be talking to kids that have the signs up in their yards.

Here's what I have so far, I'm sorry if it seems I haven't been putting enough work in...! I'll try to update and rewrite before class Wednesday.

On warm summer nights in the Vine Neighborhood of Kalamazoo, Michigan, it is not unusual to hear the sounds of a saxophone rolling like thunder down the hill from Western Michigan University’s long-abandoned East Campus. What was once a corner of campus with buildings that housed subjects ranging from Industrial Arts to Women’s Physical Education, the beautiful hilltop nestled between Oakland Drive and Davis Street has become a haven for students and Vine Neighborhood residents alike, wishing to escape the hustle of their daily routines.

            However, the calm respite afforded by East Campus may soon exist only in the history books of the Kalamazoo area. Three of the four buildings on the scenic Prospect Hill are slated to be razed by the present WMU administration, which released this decision in December 2012. The only building that will be left standing, according to the present plans, is East Hall, which served as the State Normal School, one of the original buildings on WMU’s campus. The other buildings—the North and West Halls, and the Speech and Hearing Center, along with the north and south annexes of East Hall—will all be destroyed. What is left of East Hall will become an alumni center, and the rest of Prospect Hill will serve as parking for the nearby WMU football stadium.

            The Kalamazoo community is not taking this news sitting down, though. The Friends of Historic East Campus, or FOHEC, a group founded in 1999 when original plans to demolish the buildings were drafted by WMU, has been waging a fierce campaign to raise awareness of the situation of one of Kalamazoo’s most historic areas. The banner of the 1000 member group’s website, www.fohec.org, immediately addresses the visitor of their primary concern: “WMU’s plans make our Bronco hang his head in shame!”

            However radical the FOHEC website, communications between the group and WMU have been stern but constructive. On January 14 2013, the group sent a letter to the WMU Board of Trustees, which highlighted their concerns over the plans for East Campus. “We commend the [WMU] President Dunn and the Board of Trustees for approving the renovation and reuse of the East Hall core, but we remain unconvinced of the need or benefit for rapidly turning most of the unique, historic East Campus into a parking lot.” Later in the letter, the group outlined a number of “Questions to be Answered by Western Michigan University,” among them the cost of maintenance of the building, the cost of demolition, and the indirect costs of demolition and redevelopment (debt incurred during the process, for example).

            Five weeks later, the Vice President for Business and Finance, Jan Van Der Kley, sent the group a response on behalf of the Board of Trustees. Thanking FOHEC for their support over the years, along with the $63,000 the group has “contributed over the years… to help pay for the development and implementation of plays, surveys, and prospectus costs,” Van Der Kley that only “the preservation of East Hall is the best alternative when considering the financial realities and many needs of the University.” The proposed demolition would cost around $2.2 million, while the University is paying around $275,000 a year in labor, material, and utility expenses. He also stated that renovations of historic structures also cost two to three times that of traditional, ground up contstruction.

            For the folks at FOHEC, this answer did not suffice, even though WMU is currently around $302 million in debt. The University listed “East Campus Buildings Renovations” as a #11 on their 2012 “Building Project Priority List,” estimating a cost of $96 million, a fee that the state would not pay, leaving the school to search for private funds to complete the project. However, as the members of FOHEC could attest, raising that kind of money is impossible.

            Confronted with this roadblock, FOHEC has started a grassroots campaign that has spread across the city of Kalamazoo, from the Vine neighborhood to the West and North sides of the city. Yard signs that implore passers-by to STOP THE DEMOLITION OF HISTORIC EAST CAMPUS, along with bumper stickers bearing the same message, have appeared all over the city.

            The FOHEC website has also created a Facebook page, which so far has over 370 “likes,” and is almost continuously updated with inspirational messages, “Ok, people! It's time to kick this into HIGH gear!! We need high-profile officials and celebrity's to like our Facebook page and be a part of this movement,” and photographs of the buildings along with graphs that point out the seeming hypocrisy of the WMU administration during their campaign.

            Although FOHEC seems to be fighting a losing battle, their desire to save East Campus, which was recently nominated as one of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places,” is shared among almost all of the inhabitants of the Vine Neighborhood. In fact, one of the two places people can pick up FOHEC yard signs is at the Vine Neighborhood Association.  A lack of money, FOHEC seems to believe, does not mean a lack of motivation to seek other uses for the buildings, and they firmly believe that all they need is wholehearted support from the community.