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The physical growth of the campus continues even during increasingly difficult economic times – and even at an accelerated pace. Two years from now we will have completed over $108 million worth of campus construction during a five-year period. These things remain to be done:

• A $2.6 million addition to the Marshall Fredericks Sculpture Museum should be completed within a year and a half. This will provide space for changing exhibits and a multi-media classroom to demonstrate how sculpture develops from an idea to a finished work.
  
  
• The renovation of Doan Science Building West continues. A small portion of this facility is in use this semester; the remainder should be finished by May. The results will be worth the wait.
  
  
• Work on the $30 million College of Education Building is obviously underway. Approaching from the west it will soon look like this; entering the building in the fall of 2003, this is what you will see.
  
  
• Work is just about to begin on the $3.5 million facility to house our graduate education program in Macomb County. We hope it can still be ready for the winter semester, 2003.
  
  
• A fourth floor will be added to the Zahnow Library at a cost of about $10 million. You will see more temporary walls and hear more intensive pounding over the next year. But what will emerge will also be worth the wait.
  
  
• Work should begin soon on a $2 million "Fitness Center" addition to the Ryder Center. This is part of an overall $8 million project to expand student recreational and extra-curricular facilities. A $6 million "Student Center," to be attached to the Doan dining facility, should also be underway this spring. Both the Fitness Center and the Student Center should be completed sometime in the 2002-03 academic year.
  
  
• Finally, there is a partially completed "non-motorized" pathway across the west end of the campus. This is a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project, and will eventually connect with a network of such pathways throughout the region. This path will be paved by May of this year.
  

Looking ahead, there are two other matters involving the physical campus which are noteworthy. In the Summer of 2003, Bay Road will become a four-lane "boulevard" between Pierce Road and the northern end of the campus. What is currently Bay Road will become Bay Road southbound; Bay Road northbound will be created on University property. This will also both require and allow us to reconfigure the entire front entrance to the campus and create a more visually impressive and appealing point of entry to the University.

We are also working with Kochville Township officials to develop another southern entrance to the campus via an extension of Fashion Square Boulevard north to Pierce Road. This will create a direct connection between the campus and what is, in effect, our "college town": the commercial area two miles to the south along Tittabawassee Road.

* * *

Now, a word about economics, and budgets.

In a surprising but encouraging turn of events just last week, Governor Engler and legislative leadership seem to have reached agreement to spare higher education from budget cuts in the coming fiscal year. There will be no funding increases either, in the short term, but even a stable appropriation represents very strong support from Governor Engler and legislative leaders, given the serious cuts the rest of the State budget will have to absorb this year.

In return, we and our sister universities have been asked to moderate tuition rate increases – and this University will do so as it has in the past. SVSU presently has the lowest tuition among the 15 public universities in Michigan. We will do all we can to maintain low tuition, but it is also clear that this will be increasingly difficult.

In the meantime, we must remember that we are in a recession but not a crisis. This University is fiscally sound and has not over-extended its resources, and we are confident that with continued enrollment strength we can weather the next few years without major budget cuts or a loss of progress.

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