University rejects downtown location for CEI
By Nick Olynyk
News Reporter
January 30, 2008
 A vote by the University of Windsor’s Board of Governors last Tuesday declared the school’s Centre for Engineering Innovation will be built on campus.
The cutting-edge facility will nearly cover the entire student parking lot across from Harvey’s restaurant at the corner of Wyandotte Street and California Avenue. The project will require a demolition of the lot’s abandoned Prince of Wales School.
Total votes from the closed-door meeting were not made public. However, University president Ross Paul said that the University’s 31-member Board of Governors voted “pretty strongly” in favour of the $110 million building being erected on campus instead of downtown.
The multi-purpose facility will work under the motto of “conceive, design, implement, process.” By operating under this principle, the University hopes that all engineering students will have the opportunity to create their own projects from start to finish, giving students the potential to start their own companies.
“The idea is to make our engineering department a leading department in the country,” said Paul. “And we certainly would have the facilities to do that.”
Through the synergy of local industry and the engineering faculty, the centre’s unique attributes should allow students to remain on campus for cooperative programs, or to use the manufacturing courtyard.
“Because most other institutions are spread over separate areas, they are not afforded these options,” said Paul. “We want to make a statement to put Windsor engineering ahead of everybody else.”
Before voting took place, University of Windsor Students' Alliance representative, Gary Kalaci, consulted both engineering students and students-at-large about where they thought the building should be constructed. He found that the vast majority of students wanted to see the facility set on campus. In the past, the campus’ look has been a sore spot students and applicants.
“When we do surveys as to why [potential students] don’t pick the University of Windsor. A lot of them say that they’re not happy with the way the University of Windsor looks,” said Kalaci.
Kalaci indicated that most board members also thought the financial benefits offered by the city did not outweigh having to accommodate for student transportation and a lost feeling of school spirit. Kalaci went on to affirm that the city presented more money–approximately $25 million–than what would have been required to offset the program’s move.
Paul and University administrators disagreed with the Board, recommending that the centre’s construction take place downtown so the University could reap the property and dollar benefits being given by the city.
Despite these fundamental offers, city councillor Drew Dilkens says that the downtown option was never fully explored by citing that the university never presented council with a complete business case of financial needs and proposals. “At the end of the day it sure would have been nice to have those students down there and part of the downtown core,” said Dilkens. “But I suppose it is fair to say that we didn’t fully understand exactly what it meant.”
It is a sentiment that the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association (DWBIA) continues to echo.
“To [merchants] this was almost a civic duty of the University, and a responsibility to the community to put this complex in the downtown core,” said DWBIA chairman, Larry Horwitz.
Horwitz insists that the city has missed out on a prime opportunity to inject life into its core, adding that the DWBIA offered a $500,000 towards landscaping costs around a downtown facility.
The association also initiated a publicity campaign called “We want U,” in an effort to drum up support for the downtown initiative. Horwitz says that cities such as Kitchener and Ann Arbor, Michigan have sparked change in their city centres by having local institutions set up shop.
“That is what happens in every progressive community that wants to rebuild their downtown cores,” contended Horwitz.
Although Horwitz acknowledges that keeping the new facility on campus will still help Windsor, the DWBIA thinks its dividends downtown could have been greater.
“There is a trickle effect, there is no question about it. [The University] is a kilometre from the downtown core, so it is a positive, but the effect it could have had, the massive effect, is definitely negated.”
Although the University is not building the engineering centre downtown, Paul maintains that the university may look to locate there in future endeavours.
“Downtown is an ongoing issue. There is a lot of interest in the law school...it would be a natural fit because it is self-contained.” Paul also noted that the music and visual arts faculties are situated in “less than ideal facilities.”
As debate over the engineering centre decision continues to swirl within the city, councillor Bill Marra wants all groups involved to keep the decision in perspective.
“People have to start looking at things as the glass being half full, not half empty,” said Marra. “The University and the city are getting a tremendous facility, and that is a good thing for everybody.”
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