Gathering at a luncheon honoring volunteers for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Saginaw Valley State University are, from left, Jo Brownlie, director, Robert Enzer, new president, Penny Nickle, outgoing president, SVSU President Eric Gilbertson. Gilbertson Optimistic on State Funds for New Health Building at SVSU
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The fastest growing area of study in higher education is health and Saginaw Valley State University is ready for a new building to meet those needs.
The question is when will the financially challenged state of Michigan be ready to fund a proposed new $28 million building?
"We've got our $7 million ready to go, we just need the $21 million from the state," said SVSU President Eric Gilbertson.
"We are pretty optimistic that the conference committee (of the Michigan Legislature) will reach agreement," said Mr. Gilbertson. "I just wish it would have happened a year ago.
The university board of trustees has authorized spending $150,000 for architectural work for the new Health and Human Services building for its fastest growing academic program, he said.
"If it doesn't happen we'll have to step back and take another look at how to provide these vitally needed facilities," said Mr. Gilbertson.
Part of the maturing of SVSU as a cultural and intellectual hub of the tri-county region is indicated by the growth of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). The institute has reached 1183 members, including 476 new members last year alone, pointed out Jo Brownlie, director.
OLLI last year offered 149 classes and 21 trips and has adopted a goal of increasing membership, class leaders and classes. The program will be promoted to pre-retirees, she said.
Bob Enzer took over from Penny Nickle as president of the group at a volunteer recognition luncheon in the Emeriti Room at Curtiss Hall.
"The fact is people really do enjoy OLLI because they talk to their friends -- that's how we got going," said Ms. Nickle.
Commented Gilbertson about OLLI: "You are very much a part of the university -- you are owners, not guests -- this is a public university and your eagerness to be closer to it is very gratifying."
The university is reaching its ideal size of 10,000 students, this year enrolling 9,662 students, an increase of about 2 percent over last year.
The leveling off or declining birth and graduation rates in the tri-county area of Saginaw, Bay and Midland are providing a natural control to the university that has been growing steadily in the 46 years since its founding, according to the president.
Because its primary service region is not growing, SVSU "had to develop the capacity to recruit out of the area," he , adding: "We had to build housing and therefore made a $170 million investment over the past decade."
The latest dormitory style housing development at the north end of the campus likely will be the end of housing projects as the school's enrollment peaks, he noted.
Students at SVSU include those from 40 different countries. Arabic and Mandarin speaking recruiters are employed as the campus gains and increasingly international flavor.
The percentage of students from the tri-county region is staying relatively stable at 41 percent, while another 30 percent comes from elsewhere in Michigan, mainly in the adjacent surrounding counties to the west, north and south, especially along the I-75 corridor.
Gilbertson also noted the shifting interest areas by students. For instance, a couple of decades ago 27 percent of the student body was studying Business, a percentage that was halved by the 1990s.
A concomitant growth in the number seeking Education degrees has now slumped and Business is rebounding, along with Health, he said.
More growth in enrollment would require high investment in more housing, said Gilbertson, a commitment the university is not presently prepared to make.
He noted $280 million in construction on campus in the last decade with $40 million more on the drawing board. Next year will see more traffic congestion because of ongoing projects, he predicted.
The university has used a little more than half the land acquired by the founders who raised $4.2 million in 1965, bought more than a section of land and struck a deal with the state to make a public university in what then was known as "The Golden Triangle." That appellation came mainly because at that time this area had one of the highest per capita income levels in the country. "No one could have predicted the effects of the oil embargo and what happened to the auto industry," he said.
Besides fulfilling its mission as a cultural/intellectual hub, the university is boosting the regional economy by about $150 million a year, 70 percent of it coming from outside the region, he said, from state and federal funds and students.
"SVSU is more important to the local economy than many people give us credit for," the president commented. there is an estimated $34 million in spending a year by non-residents of the tri-county area.
The university has 30,062 alumni who have graduated since its founding in 1962; 23 percent are from Saginaw County, 12 percent from Bay County and 6 percent from Midland County.
Mr. Gilbertson noted five of nine young leaders honored recently in Saginaw were SVSU grads and predicted: "The importance of SVSU alumni will be felt even more significantly in the future." ###
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