Officials used rent revenue elsewhere

Graduate student leaders are accusing the university of failing to make good on a nearly 15-year-old promise to establish a graduate student center, an example of the school's perennial neglect of graduate issues, they say.

The university indicated in a 1994 press release that proceeds from future rent payments at the Graduate Gardens and Graduate Hills apartments would be set aside for a number of projects, including the new center.

But in a letter to the Graduate Student Government, top administration officials said more than $10 million in revenue was instead spent on projects such as the Riggs Alumni Center and CSPAC.

Vice President of Student Affairs Linda Clement defended the decision to spend the funds elsewhere, saying a graduate student center was only one of several possibilities discussed at the time.

"Income from the lease agreement is expected to be used by the university to fund capital renovation and construction projects,such as a graduate student center," the 1994 release says.

A portion of the profits went toward building the Alumni Center, as well as renovations for the Computer Science Instructional Center and Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The university also used funds for the development of a research park and to revamp the graduate apartment complexes, which faculty and previous students say were in dire need of improvements.

But no graduate center.

Clement, who was not in a position that made decisions on university development projects at the time, said officials decided projects such as the research park would be more beneficial to graduate students and the university as a whole.

Graduate Student Government President Laura Moore disagrees.

"[A research park] wouldn't specifically benefit grad students more than anyone else," Moore said. "We deserve more than trickledown."

Clement said the graduate lounge in the Stamp Student Union and a new university position - coordinator for graduate student life - were established in place of the proposed graduate center. She also said the language in the press release did not indicate a promise.

"It's phrased as 'such uses as,' and gives examples of what the money could be used for," she said.

The university decided to hand over management of the Graduate Gardens and Graduate Hills apartments to a private company, Southern Management Corporation, in 1994 after the complexes received negative attention in the media for being run down. The school didn't have the funding to carry out renovations on its own, but the release said 30 percent of the profit from rents at the apartments would go to the university.

College Park City Councilman Andrew Fellows, who was GSG president when the press release was issued, said the university made assurances that graduate students would see direct benefits from the deal.

"It was always part of the discussion of privatization because there'd be a large string of revenue, and graduate students believed they should realize some of the benefits of that," Fellows said. "It was a spoken commitment by the president and provost at the time."

The university even demonstrated its commitment to the project by flying Fellows to Ann Arbor, Mich. to look at the University of Michigan's Graduate Student Center, he said.

Fellows added that there was a committee who examined drawings and sites for the center, comprised of faculty members and students, including himself, and a previous dean of the architecture school.

"A report went to the president" of the university with recommendations on a possible location and design for the center, he said. "But at the end of the process there was no decision made."

Then-president William Kirwan, who now serves as University System of Maryland chancellor, could not be reached for comment.

Fellows said although he encouraged succeeding GSG presidents to pursue the issue after his presidency ended in 1995, "at some point, it kind of died away."

"I've always felt there was an unpaid debt, an unmet commitment," he said.

Although graduate students have not asked the university to resurrect previous plans, a graduate center would offer a centralized place for graduate students to access resources, Moore said.

The university has not revealed any intentions to renew the issue.

"It's not currently in our thinking," Clement said.

kalterdbk@gmail.com