In The Ivory Towers

Is there any institution as catty and political as a University? I guess giving faculty tenure helps to contribute to that.

The saga over the new engineering complex has so many twists and turns that it boggles my mind. Here are some concerns that I have:

Why is the role of Ed Lumley, the Chancellor, being downplayed so much? I find it interesting that the Chair ... Marty Komsa ... is boosting the Mayor and seemingly ignoring Lumley’s role. My understanding is that Mr. Lumley is the one responsible for telling the University Board to "THINK BIG" and stop thinking small town Windsor when approaching the provincial government. Put forward the best and demand the most is the approach that Lumley took. Why isn't he being given credit for this big city approach to fund raising and grand visions?

Of course, the knives may be out for Mr. Lumley because he had the nerve to help Magna get "$50-million investment in Magna's innovation, training and commercialization centre" from the government rather than getting that money for the University of Windsor, or so the story goes. Don't you think he would help us get money if he put foward the idea? But I just wonder what more there is behind it. Will this failure to appreciate and to recognize his contribution turn him off now?

Did someone outsmart themselves and will this entire project come crashing down? If so, who is going to get the blame? Right now it looks like Councillor Postma is set up to be the fall person with her quote in the Windsor Star about an educational institution:

• "It could even be the university, I’m not sure; I know it’s an education institution," said Ward 2 Coun. Caroline Postma."

Of course, since I knew that it was the engineering complex already, only one person could have leaked that information (and I don’t mean a University person). It had to be, well you know who. Postma better get smart and let us know who told her the information! Why should she get the blame

From what I understand there was a meeting with Dwight and Sandra about a month ago and at this meeting the Mayor agreed with Lumley that the University needed to 'go big'. But Eddie wanted any City participation contingent on a downtown location. After all he is in trouble with his Urban Village concept and needed someone to bail him out. The University to the rescue, eh.

My reading of the situation is that the leak was deliberate to put pressure on Sandra and Dwight to finance the new complex or else face possible defeat at the election in October. The view seems to have been that if the news is public then Sandra and Dwight would be forced to do something and at the same time save Eddie’s bacon on the urban village.

It’s a big gamble. As is well known, the two cabinet ministers are in some trouble with their colleagues for sending so much money to Windsor. Would it have been better for them to work quietly behind the scenes to get the money needed for the new engineering complex? Now the anti-Windsor types in the government can say no new money for Windsor, thereby putting not only the engineering complex in jeopardy but the two seats as well.

The interesting part is to see how Ross Paul has been positioning himself to make sure that if there is a failure it is not put on his shoulders.

• "University president Ross Paul repeatedly cautioned in an interview that nothing is set in stone…
  
  Paul, who will retire in 15 months, said he has no intention of leaving the university with a big deficit as part of his legacy."
  
• "If things don’t come through, we won’t do it," Paul said. "We have to add up every piece and the province is only one piece."

Dwight Duncan has done the same by making it clear that the City has to put in cash and not just land and waiving fees as Eddie wishes to do.

• "Historically capital costs are shared with local communities," Duncan said, pointing to $2 million the province gave U of W toward the $4 million in design fees for Phase 1."

In passing, if the City had not committed to $65 m and counting for the new arena, but only put in $15m in a P3 arena, we would have money to contribute. I'm not even sure where in the heck the City will get the money to help the University given the ineptitude they exhibit on some other projects that have had significant cost over-runs. I am so worried that the City is heading towards a financial crisis that will require another tax increase down the road.

But here is my big fear. The new proposal for the engineering complex puts the construction of the Phase 1 building which was to commence on June 1, 2007 on hold. As you know as well, the medical building is being constructed now and costs have increased dramatically. Read my previous blogs ... costs for many City projects always end up substantially higher than originally estimated. It should surprise no one at the University that the costs for the medical education building would have sky rocketed as well.

Picture this, fundraising starts for the medical building and given Windsor’s poor economy the money does not flow in as expected. Where would the money come from then? The only place I can think of is the money already set aside for the Phase 1 of the engineering complex. In other words, "borrow" from the engineering fund since it is on hold waiting for the downtown location to be finalized.

Even if the money is available for the medical building, we know that Medical issues trump engineering issues in Windsor ten times out of ten despite the importance of the automotive sector. Raising money for engineering was going to be a challenge already. Given the added demands for the medical complex now it would be near impossible to go to the community for the engineering complex as well.

In addition, I would expect at least a year to pass before new drawings could be drafted and various approvals obtained before the huge complex could be constructed downtown. Can you imagine people and companies who have been already asked to donate to the medical building being asked again to contribute to the engineering complex?

Even with provincial and federal contributions, the new complex would require tens of millions of private dollars. And who knows how much the cost of a downtown engineering complex will balloon. There are very serious operating and capital cost implications for a downtown complex which I suspect the University haven't even begun to understand. Where will all these added costs come from?

The $110 million being quoted was for the original location of the engineering complex on campus. There are no estimates for an engineering complex in downtown Windsor. And if the University thinks they can do a downtown location for $100 million then someone must be kidding themselves.

I can see then a downtown complex up in smoke when the number crunchers get finished and instead the University going back to plan A and building their Phase 1 building about a year later at an increased cost. This whole episode of the University urban village will have cost the University a year and untold additional costs. Why couldn't the Province just funded the full $110 million dollar original concept and be done with it. Why a downtown location other than to save face in the short-term when we found out that there was NO developer interest downtown?

With all of theses behind the scenes going on in the ivory towers of the University, the folks in Engineering should be concerned that this latest scheme could hurt the plans for their cherished and much needed engineering building.

Oh and by the way, Mr. Komsa's term as Chair expires in September so he won't even be around as all this develops. It will be the job for the new Chair, whoever is foolish enough to take the position.