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Board of Trustees approves resolution to move forward with sports arena plans, FAM comments on arena and contract negotiations

On Dec. 12, three different Board of Trustees committees met to discuss resolutions and reports.
On Dec. 12, three different Board of Trustees committees met to discuss resolutions and reports.

The Miami University Board of Trustees passed resolutions regarding a potential sports arena, a new major in quantum computing and possible investments at its Dec. 13 meeting.

Resolution for sports arena

After much discussion during the Board of Trustees finance and audit committee meeting on Dec. 12 regarding the sports arena, the Board of Trustees unanimously passed the resolution authorizing awarding contracts for architectural services for an amount not to exceed $3.5 million. 

During the committee meeting, David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and business services, said the resolution included a budget plan that only covered schematic design. He added that plans won’t proceed until the board fully approves the arena project’s full budget, cost estimates and timeline.

The project will total a little more than $200 million, including the demolition of Millett Hall and improving the current site.

Overall, Creamer said the university has $7 million worth of debt funds available to be applied to the arena project as well as gift money. The debt service payments will amount to about $3 million per year and will come out of the university’s operating budget for roughly the next 25 years.

“Miami proposes that a new arena may be developed to serve the needs of the university and Oxford community better and more efficiently than the present Millett Hall,” according to the executive summary for the new arena. “The university suggests that the location of the new arena should be more centrally located to the campus in order to encourage and support economic development within the community and to better serve the students and staff that use the arena.”

The finance and audit committee also discussed the potential new hotel during the Dec. 12 meeting. However, no resolution was made regarding those plans.

“One of the things that the site committee will consider is the potential impact of the hotel if it were to be constructed on [Cook] field,” Creamer said. “... We have to determine how to continue to provide the intramural and play fields for students at Cook field … [but] the opportunity to still construct an arena on the site is still there.”

Creamer said placing the hotel and arena next to each other isn’t out of the picture, either. Both projects are led by the same site committee selected by President Gregory Crawford. 

In January, the committee will narrow down 10 locations to roughly two to four, and then share the selections with the community for them to supply feedback. By February, Creamer said a location should be selected.

Faculty Alliance of Miami provides input

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Before decisions about the arena were made, the board began its meeting with public comment from the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM).

Photo by Taylor Stumbaugh | The Miami Student
Roughly 80 Faculty Alliance of Miami members showed up to the Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 13, but most left after public comment.

Six FAM members spoke on behalf of the group about negotiating a fair contract, but primarily about the proposed basketball arena, which could be located near Slant Walk.

First to approach the stand was long-time Oxford resident and 2019 faculty retiree Melanie Ziegler. She said she took to Facebook when learning about the “possible desecration of the most iconic green space and soul of this university” and didn’t receive any positive feedback from other alumni, community members and colleagues.

“This is beyond reprehensible,” Ziegler said. “I understand that these are challenging times for the university, as they have to compete for more and more students, and for funds. But surely, there are preferable alternatives to desecrating the academic centers of our campus that’s famous for their beauty and classic charm.”

Ken Irwin, web services librarian, spoke on behalf of the librarians who unionized a year and a half ago. During his address, he announced that Miami proposed for the libraries to scale back their scholarship and professional leadership to 20% of their time with the pretext that their workload was too large at 60 to 70-hour weeks.

“That’s an enormous change in our duties and one that is out of step with the library’s strategic goals and Miami’s academic mission,” Irwin said. “Specialized knowledge and innovative solutions don’t develop in a vacuum.”

During his speech, Irwin started tearing up when he discussed how the university has been unwilling to engage in librarian salaries in a meaningful way. He said most librarians in Miami are significantly underpaid compared to their colleagues at other state universities in Ohio. He added that the median salary for Miami’s librarians is lower than the starting salary for librarians at Cincinnati State Community College. 

He ended with the notion that Miami needs competitive minimum salaries and raises that “don't leave us further behind our peers.”

John Schaefer, professor of anthropology, finished out the public session by speaking on behalf of FAM. After bargaining for 471 days, Schaefer said its members are getting frustrated and angry over these delays, as well as the lack of respect from the university administration. He added that they are willing to work through winter break to finish the contract.

“Management’s proposals weaken job protections for tenure-stream and TCPL faculty,” Schaefer said. “[It] blocks librarians from providing vital community programs and also sets no limits on workloads for librarians. Meanwhile, university management is spending many billions on outside consultants, on anti-union law firms and other things unrelated to the academic mission.” 

To end his speech, Schaefer said the administration’s New Year’s resolution should be to give them “a fair contract now.” Afterward, the roughly 80 FAM members in attendance presented the trustees with holiday cards with possible New Year’s resolutions and continued chanting “fair contract now” on their way out of the meeting.

stumbata@miamioh.edu 

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