OkStateExpansion.com

Here is a recent letter to the editor titled “Regents prove their stupidity” that appeared in the O’Colly. The letter was authored by an associate prof in engineering.

It seems to summarize the sentiments of many faculty members

http://www.ocolly.com/read_story.php?a_id=29498

{link also at left of site under “letters to the editor” - O’Colly}

Friends,

I got this passed to me by friends in the Pacific Northwest. It is from the paper in Eugene, Oregon, where the University of Oregon resides. Corvalis, where Oregon’s OSU is located is right down the road…. even closer than Norman and Stillwater. The Phil Knight mentioned in the story is the founding genius of Nike, headquartered in Portland. He is U of O’s major “benefactor.” It is interesting and kinda heartwarming to see how others find us here in Stillwater, America.
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Bob Welch: This OSU is a far cry from Oregon’s

By Bob Welch
Columnist, The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, January 24, 2006

STILLWATER, Okla. - Amid Oregon’s more liquefied version of Rossetti’s “bleak midwinter,” I escape for two days to speak at Oklahoma State University. And to be reminded that it’s not only not raining everywhere, it’s not Oregon everywhere.

In Oregon, we’re fearing rain-triggered floods. Oklahomans are fearing drought-triggered fires, the kind that swept across nearly a half-million acres of grasslands in late December and early January.

It’s Dust Bowl Lite. East-central Oklahoma is experiencing its driest winter since 1921. In the Stillwater area, it has rained 1.49 inches in the past 90 days.

“Goodness,” I told my audience, nurses from around the state, “it rained more than that while we were waiting for takeoff in Eugene.”

In Stillwater, people are watering their lawns in hopes their grass won’t die.

But what strikes you as different about this place isn’t only the rock-hard grass the color of Parmesan cheese and matted down like a bad comb-over. It’s all sorts of nuances that remind you you’re not in Kan - er, Oregon anymore.

It’s brick - an entire campus virtually made of brick, the hard edges often softened by modified Georgian architecture that give it an almost Southern feel. (And, at 692 acres, more than twice the size of UO’s campus.)

It’s the giant freeway billboards touting this church and that. It’s a morning paper headlined by - well, of course - Oklahoma winning the Miss America pageant.

It’s fans at Saturday’s Oklahoma State-Colorado basketball game not booing the visitors when they came on the court. And coach Eddie Sutton appearing in “Charlie’s Chicken” TV commercials.

It’s 91 out of the 100 people I counted putting a hand over their hearts for the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And, following that, most everyone putting their arms around each other and singing OSU’s school song, swaying back and forth to create what looks like wind tickling a field of bright orange wheat.

It’s not sitting until the Cowboys make their first basket. It’s 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. bank teller hours. And something I’m ashamed we don’t have here: “Duck Street.”

People might think of Stillwater as a sort of supersized Monmouth; and, yes, it’s flat and in the middle of nowhere. But the university pumps life into the city of 60,000-plus people - nearly one out of three residents are students and, judging from the turnout at Eskimo Joe’s on Saturday night, they’re not all studying for Future Farmers of America midterms.

Eugene has nothing to rival Joe’s, the nation’s third-ranked college postgame hangout, according to The Sporting News. One of its summer street parties is said to have drawn 65,000 - and I’ll personally vouch for the cheese fries.

In another departure from my Oregon norm, I stayed in a student-run hotel - The Atherton. It’s attached to the OSU Student Union and operated largely by undergrads in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration program, who are astute enough to offer Oregon wines.

Of course, I found plenty of similarities between here and there: OSU has its own “Westmoreland” on its hands; more than 300 houses, apartments and duplexes will be bulldozed for a new “sports village.”

It has its own Phil Knight: T. Boone Pickens, the gas and oil tycoon - and Time magazine coverboy - who recently dumped an NCAA-record $165 million into OSU’s athletic program. (Yep, that would be Pickens Stadium getting new skyboxes, some of which will allow deep-pocketed patrons to watch football from one side of their suites and basketball from the other.)

And it has friendly people, including a woman who gave me a $30 ticket outside Gallagher-Iba Arena on Saturday. I offered to pay. She wouldn’t have it.

So I’m going to send her a nice thank-you present this week: a bottle of Oregon rain.

It’s not like we’ll miss it.

*note: see article link on this site under news/articles, “OU aims to increase endowment to o$1 billion.”

I read the article in the Tulsa World regarding Dr. Boren’s meeting with the OU board of regents. Dr. Boren told them he wanted an increase in OU endowment to $1 billion within 3 yrs. It became obvious that OU was, without saying it, showing a significant difference between OSU and OU in their leadership, area of emphasis and even their donors.

The article pointed out, without actually stating it, the difference in the arena of priorities between OU and OSU (academics rather than athletics…and yes, we’re all aware of their excellence in athletics as well).

It was stated that only 14 public universities in the nation have such a large endowment. Dr. Boren wants OU to raise money for 20 more endowed faculty positions by the end of 2006, and a $50 million student scholarship campaign. Since ‘94, endowed faculty positions has risen to 403 from 101. Seven more to be announced in the coming days. This, Boren said, indicates the faculty’s excellence and helps OU attract and retain top scholars from around the world.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education matches private money donated for endowed faculty positions and the Oklahoma Supreme Court has approved a bond issue that pays the backlog of some of the matching money.

When some tried and true OSU alums are singing, “proud and IMMORAL”, rather than “proud and Immortal” and saying OSU stands for “Our Shamed University”, it is a sad day. Leadership! Where are you?

As Trude Naff pointed out a couple months ago, the OSU Foundation’s “Gift Acceptance Policy” states, among other things:

Gifts that may expose the Foundation or University to adverse publicity, require expenditures beyond their resources, or involve them in unexpected responsibilities because of their source, conditions or purposes will be referred to the President and CEO of the OSU Foundation. This individual may withhold approval of acceptance, pending a review. Where is our leadership?

Apparently there is a large telephone campaign to raise funding for our continued debt on the stadium. Could $165 million be used to ease this situation? Could our leadership direct reasonable options for contributions? Even the last $3 million donated as academic, is to go to helping the athletes graduate. Where is our leadership?

I know, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, be grateful for the gift, etc., but I have always thought of a “gift” as something given with no strings attached. I think of a “gift” with strings attached more akin to a “bribe.” Where is our leadership?

Dear Regents,

I am close, but not in the present threatened area, but I cannot help but be concerned. There are real people involved here, homeowners, long-time renters and landlords with retirements involved. Everyone of them have a story. And nobody with authority seems to care. The perpetuators of this action have by no means a sterling reputation. Boone Pickens was a ruthless raider. Now he is rich and he buys people. And the people in authority at OSU have been willing to be bought. I am bitterly ashamed. My husband and I are not educated and we saved for years so we could send our son to OSU. He got a masters in electrical engineering in six years and we were so proud. Not anymore. When I walk to my friends house on Connell street, I see if not the ugliest parking lot in existence, it is awful close. Many people lost their homes by that OSU action. Now they are preparing to destroy another comfortable neighborhood where people live in harmony.. Very low crime area. And if this action goes forward, it will be an ugly dangerous place for years, as they wait for money. Construction never occurs on time. Look at the stadium and Hall of Fame road. It has been and will be a mess for years. And now this institution of higher education is considering making another such mess so close to a very fine elementary school and the cities only high school.

Progress is a good thing and it is time for OSU to move forward with new leadership

and to use land they already own so this can be done in a timely manner. Our city and its’ people deserve some respect. Until now we have always supported OSU.

Thanks for listening,
Beverly Kargel
808 West Knapp
Stillwater, OK,. 74075

Dec. 12, 2005

David Schmidly
President, Oklahoma State University
1600 N. Washington St.
Stillwater, OK 74075
(c.c. to members of the OSU Board of Regents)

Dear President Schmidly,

I would like to offer you some comments and suggestions concerning your proposed OSU Master Plan and campus expansion.

I sent a lengthy e-mail to the Board of Regents on the subject on Nov. 27. In it I explained that I am a 66 year-old lifelong Stillwater resident; my late father was a long-time head of the chemistry department. I am an OSU graduate, have lived within a few blocks of the campus all my life, and have owned and operated the well-known Hideaway Pizza restaurant on Campus Corner since 1960. I have employed literally thousands of OSU students over the last 45 years, enjoy a higher income when athletic teams are successful and attendance booms, and I bleed orange.

However, I told the regents that I agree with mayor Bud Lacy that OSU’s handling, so far, of its long range Master Plan has been a public relations disaster. Although my home, (about six blocks south of you in Washington Heights), is not in the proposed expansion area, it is close enough for me to be concerned. I have attended virtually all the public meetings on the subject: the initial Cinnabar Company meeting in the alumni center for residents of the expansion area, the City of Stillwater forum at the library at which you fielded questions, two meetings of residents at the Hillcrest Baptist church, a City Commission meeting, a Stillwater Neighborhood Alliance meeting, and the Regents meeting at Langston. I have read carefully all of the newspaper publicity on the subject, starting with the initial announcement in the Stillwater newspaper and continuing through the deluge of letters to the editor and official OSU statements on the topic. I have studied the Benham company maps and vision for the future at length, and have had conversations with three of the Stakeholders who participated in the formulation of the Master Plan. With this background, I would like to make the following suggestions:

1. SLOW DOWN! Take at least six months more, if not a year, to carefully consider and rethink all the possibilities and ramifications of your long range Master Plan. Publicly solicit input on the topics which have been infuriating the community: condemnation of property, disruption of traffic patterns, reduction of economical student housing, impacting of retirement income for the elderly, effect upon the tax base, school system, and city of Stillwater finances, etc..

2. COMMUNICATE! You admitted yourself at the library meeting that this has been inadequate. Open up! Let the public know what is happening, and why! The statement read by attorney Ray Wall to the Regents at Langston demanded that OSU cease development “north of Hall of Fame”. Many of the people who helped create that statement didn’t stop to realize that the university has already developed a great deal of property north of Hall of Fame, including Bennett Hall, the baseball and softball fields, the Wes Watkins center, and a lot of parking lots. Why not print a map in the paper showing what property OSU already has north of Hall of Fame, including the 37 properties to be acquired under the contract with the Bond family? You have stated that OSU has already acquired 40% of the property between Hall of Fame and McElroy. I would like to see a map of those acquisitions. Publishing such a map would show people that the “OSU Land Grab” is not as extensive as some seem to feel.

3. RETHINK THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE “ATHLETIC VILLAGE”. This is a major consideration. You have already identified the area north of McElroy as a “5-20 year” long-range acquisition project. Do you really need it at all? I know the major highlight of the proposed athletic village is an indoor practice facility. Fine. Build it on the property you already have–as close to Pickens Stadium and Gallagher-Iba as possible. But do you really need a running track, soccer stadium, and indoor and outdoor tennis facilities as close to the stadium and G-I as possible also, when they are still going to be 4 to 7 blocks north? These are going to be low-usage, space gobbling facilities in what is now a heavily populated neighborhood. Why not build them 6-8 blocks to the west, north and west of the Colvin Center? True, your “athletic village” would then be strung out in an east-west rectangle along Hall of Fame, rather than being a more compact square shape with Hall of Fame cutting through the middle. But look at the advantages: You would be reducing the amount of property you would need to acquire, building more on current OSU property. You would be reducing the loss of affordable student housing. And you would not be displacing most of the long-time residents whom you have recently thrown into such turmoil. At one local meeting I heard that of the 45 owner-occupied homes among the 410 properties OSU wanted to acquire, 42 were north of McElroy and 3 were south. At the library meeting you stated that four were south of McElroy. Whatever. Doesn’t that tell you that there is a natural break at McElroy between almost all rental property and a lot of owner-occupied homesteads? Stop at McElroy and you would reduce many of the concerns mentioned above: condemnation of propery, loss of tax base, affordable housing, impact on Will Rogers School, city utility revenue, etc..

4. TRY TO ERASE THE WORDS “EMINENT DOMAIN” FROM YOUR VOCABULARY AND THE MINDS OF THE STILLWATER PUBLIC.
Nothing terrifies people more than the thought of forcible eviction. The OSU Foundation made a terrible mistake hiring those thugs from Cinnabar to come in and strong-arm residents. You MUST try to repair this damage somehow. I would suggest, once again, that going public and communicating yourself is the only solution. Stress voluntary acquisition of property. Make it crystal clear that OSU does NOT want to use eminent domain and will ONLY do so as a last resort. Give the public as lenient a timetable as you possibly can, perhaps guaranteeing that OSU will NOT exercise eminent domain for at least five years south of McElroy and 15 years north of McElroy, if at all. Or, alternatively, guarantee that OSU will not exercise eminent domain unless you already own 95% of the property within a certain radius from a desired property. Making guarantees or pledges of this nature is the only way you can restore the public’s faith in OSU’s overall good intentions!

5. WORK WITH RENTAL PROPERTY OWNERS WHO DO NOT WANT TO SELL by finding equivalent rental properties to trade them. A major point of concern, both for live-in owners and rental owners, is that “fair market value” would not allow them to replace their current property. “Replacement value” is the rallying cry here, and it is a fair, equitable, and reasonable goal. Do not blacken the name of OSU for decades by trying to “lowball” people with your offers now. Be not only fair but even generous–do what is morally and ethically right, not just what is legally permissable.

6. FORGET ABOUT PERMANENT CLOSURE OF HALL OF FAME. As far as I can tell, this has never been an officially stated goal of OSU, but simply an off-hand suggestion by Mike Holder. It is a terrible idea, which would disrupt traffic flow immensely, as it is now. You should not even need to keep it closed during phase three of the stadium project, as you have suggested. Surely there is enough room on the south side parking lot, and to the west of the stadium, to allow for phase three while restoring normal traffic flow on Hall of Fame.

President Schmidly, please consider these suggestions. I share your vision of a great and gloriously expanded campus and improved university in the future. I remember the campus of my childhood, before the student union was built and when Washington street ran right through the center of campus, before the library was built. I remember seeing quonset huts spring up like mushrooms as enrollment skyrocketed right after world war II. Then I watched those quonsets slowly replaced by beautiful brick structures over the next 50 years. My entire life has been one of watching the campus expand and grow. I want to continue to watch that expansion, but it must be done right–not by running roughshod over the wishes of the community, the faculty, and the student body.

I would love to communicate further with you, the Benham Company, or anyone else about the future of OSU and the OSU Master Plan..
Sincerely yours,

Richard H. Dermer
1121 W. Eskridge Place
Stillwater, OK 74075
405-372-6127
tbkahuna@swbell.net

Dear Regents:

At the meeting last Friday, you heard much opposition to OSU’s new Master Plan. As you know, most of the opposition is directed at the land acquisition for the athletics village. It is that purchase, supported by a recent donation by T. Boone Pickens, that will displace Stillwater residents. It is that purchase that will result in a vacant lot in the core of Stillwater, because OSU can’t even find the funding to finish the construction of the football stadium, much less find funding for a new athletics village. It is that purchase that sends more funds to athletics facilities, while the library – the center of any academic institution – houses archives in a grocery store building.

This land acquisition was specifically opposed in the comments of the representatives of what President Schmidly likes to call the “OSU Family” – official representatives of the Faculty Council, the Staff Council, and the graduate and undergraduate students. At last Friday’s meeting, the mayor of the City of Stillwater also outlined the history of OSU’s changing demands for the closure of Hall of Fame, about which the City is informed, not consulted, to accommodate the expansion of T. Boone Pickens Stadium.

Now it appears that T. Boone Pickens is the speaker for next Friday’s Fall Commencement exercises. Inviting this donor to be honored at OSU, at this time, is not the action of an effective leader. It is not the action of a man who listens to the concerns of the people he leads or the town he leads them in. It is not the action of a man who has the sensitivity and skill to build support for his vision – much less create a vision that is worthy of support.

Regents, I urge you: please encourage President Schmidly to discover a sudden conflict that will prevent Mr. Pickens’s appearance on behalf of OSU at this sensitive time. Please help the “OSU Family” understand that you hear and share their concerns about the quality of their campus leadership – and that you, as leaders of the OSU System, share a vision for long-term excellence at OSU that is worthy of an institution of higher education.

Sincerely,

Marion Agnew

Former Stillwater resident

Daughter of OSU Emeritus Faculty

Sister of OSU alumni

Dear OSU/Oklahoma A&M Regents:

I would like to make some comments on the recently unveiled OSU Master Plan.

By way of introduction, my name is Richard H. Dermer. I am a 66 year-old lifelong Stillwater resident; my father, the late Dr. O.C.Dermer, was a Regents Professor and head of the chemistry department for over 20 years. I am an OSU graduate with three years of graduate work, have lived within a few blocks of the campus all my life, and have owned and operated the well-known Hideaway Pizza Restaurant on the south side of the campus since 1960. In the past 45 years I have employed literally thousands of OSU students. I care deeply about both OSU and Stillwater; my wife and I are currently serving as co-chairmen of this year’s Stillwater United Way campaign, with a goal of $740,000.

I am extremely disturbed, disappointed, and incredulous over the manner in which President Schmidly and the OSU Foundation have attempted to foist off their long range Master Plan to the OSU community and the residents of Stillwater. They have, in a few short weeks, created more ill will toward Oklahoma State University than anything else the university has done in my life. In the words of Stillwater mayor Bud Lacy, “it has been a disaster”. (Quote from televised city commission meeting last Monday night.)

I do not know how well acquainted you regents are, scattered across the state, with the details of all the discussion that has been boiling over in Stillwater in recent weeks. I would, therefore, like to ask you a few questions:

According to OSU Director of Communications Gary Shutt, in the Nov. 27 Stillwater NewsPress, “We sought feedback through the entire process. In addition to feedback from the OSU Board of Regents, the administration and the stakeholder group, we held more than 50 public meetings that allowed the city, members of the community, faculty, and students to comment. That feedback has helped us create the current plan.”

How were those 50 public meetings publicized, and how many attended? Not only did I not hear or read about ANY of them, NOBODY I have spoken to heard about, read about, or attended any of them! This claim of “public meetings” has been heavily derided at at least four real public meetings which I have recently attended.

Who selected the “Stakeholders” group that provided input? I have read the list of those 35 stakeholders on the OSU web site, (not an easy list to find), and knew only four of them. The list seemed heavily weighted by OSU and Benham company employees. At one of the above public meetings recently, at least one of those “stakeholders” confessed that the Master Plan in its current form came as quite a shock to him. I guess that’s not so surprising; it came as a shock to the entire community.

Have you been reading the letters to the Stillwater newspaper about the Master Plan? There is a huge outpouring of outrage and anger over this Master Plan.

Are you aware of the draft resoloution which was to be presented at a special meeting of the Faculty Council on Tuesday, Nov. 29? (I do not know if this meeting will still be held, since its only agenda item was a recommendation to President Schmidly that the Regents hold off on the Athletic village and certain other matters until Jan. 27. Since Schmidly has now “determined that additional time was needed to address isssues raised during recent community meetings”, the meeting may or may not be held.) But you need to read that Faculty Council recommendation in any case.

Are you aware that public opinion is running HEAVILY against OSU because of the high-handed manner in which the OSU foundation has announced that it WILL acquire 410 units of property over 100 acres north of campus? I attended the public meeting in which the president of the acquisition company hired by the OSU Foundation used the word “voluntary, voluntary, voluntary, voluntary”, about ten times before saying that if that didn’t work, EMINENT DOMAIN would be used. The audience, to put it mildly, was incensed.

Regents, I understand that there are times when eminent domain is justifed, such as acquiring property in order to replace a dangerous, deadly highway with a safer one. But to use it to take over elderly retired graduates and faculty members’ homes, or retirement income rental properties, for ATHLETIC FACILITIES? When the university owns thosands of lightly used acres less than a mile to the west? Get real. While perhaps legal, this is morally wrong.

Did Boone Pickens, in his latest lavish gift to the university, earmark the donation to buy the SPECIFIC 100 acres now targeted for acquisition, or just to build an “athletic village”? If it was the former, I believe a strong majority of Stillwater residents, and probably a strong majority of OSU faculty and students, would vote to say “thanks, but no thanks.” If it was the latter, then not spending the estimated 30-40 million dollars needed to buy this residential property would enable OSU to build an athletic village second to none on property it already owns.

Back to the 100 acres, with its 410 housing units. (That’s not just houses; there are dozens of large apartment buildings in the area.) One local has estimated that it covers 7.5% of the residential area of Stillwater. Many people are concerned about the $200,000 loss in property tax income to the Stillwater school system, the impact on the elementary school just to the north, and the loss of electrical service income to the city. (Stillwater makes a lot of its operating income from the city-owned electrical department, but OSU buys its juice from OG&E.)

I am more concerned about the removal of a large block of relatively cheap, densely populated rental housing for students within walking distance of campus. I have not seen any estimates, but I would guess this targeted acquisition area may house between 2,500 and 4,000 students. Where are they going to live? Rents are going to shoot up on the east, south, and west sides of campus, and traffic is going to get worse as fewer students can live with walking distance of campus. It is going to cost more for students to live in Stillwater, and THIS IS GOING TO CUT ENROLLMENT!

Regents, just a few more questions. Whose idea was this “Master Plan” in the first place? My guess is that the initial idea came from President and “CEO” Schmidly, and was probably given some sort of initial go-ahead by your group. Then someone, (who?), hired the Benham Company to develop a plan and they in turn assigned the project to a group of young visionaries, including some OSU architectural graduates. At some point, without much real local input, a lot of fanciful ideas got put down on paper and are now dangerously close to becoming reality. Closing Hall of Fame, Stillwater’s second most heavily traveled East-West thoroughfare, permanently? Sprinkling Theta Pond-like water features across the campus, (and down Washington Street), as though the campus was a golf course? Taking over another chunk of student housing on the east side of campus between Knoblock and Duck, and perhaps all the way to Main? I have spent a lot of time looking at the current “Master Plan” and am not very impressed. A lot of it is pure fantasy. Some of it is unfair, such as the denial of the Stillwater Islamic Society’s plans to build a complex on North Washington, while allowing a new Farmhouse Fraternity house a block to the south, close to the center of the new Athletic Village. (The Islamic Society’s hoped-for building has been replaced with a pond.)

Regents, please. President Schmidly said, in a TV interview prior the the Bedlam football game last Saturday, that he is an “impatient” man. Do not let him stampede you. Do not let T. Boone Pickens stampede you. TAKE YOUR TIME. Host some real public meetings. Listen. Let the entire OSU faculty have some input, not just selected yes-men. Listen some more. If you must acquire property north of campus, make it truly voluntary–do not utilize eminent domain. The future of OSU-Stillwater public relations is in your hands.
Mess this up, and they will be stained for decades.

I would be happy to discuss this further with you, either individually or as a group. I plan on attending your meeting next Friday in Langston.

Sincerely yours,

Richard H. Dermer
1121 W. Eskridge Place, Stillwater, 74075
405-372-6127

Mrs. Lou Watkins
OSU/A&M Board of Regents
2800 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Dear Mrs. Watkins;

The concept for the OSU Master Plan suggests a showplace of academic and athletic excellence. It depicts a campus that is absolutely idyllic in amenities and aesthetics. It would be a tremendous achievement to accomplish such a project.

This is a plan that could have been welcomed with enthusiasm had it been handled properly. Since it was not, the likelihood of public and governmental support has been seriously eroded.

The most obvious problems include the timing of steps now taken, lack of detailed planning prior to action, methods employed in those actions and lack of consideration of the consequences of both the announcements and pursuit of acquisitions.

Upon release of initial development plans literally thousands of lives were impacted. Those in the immediate and near term acquisition area received certified letters the same day as press releases were published. Some received their letters before reading of the action in the newspapers and many read it in the newspaper only hours before receiving theirs. The letters contained thinly veiled threats of use of “eminent domain” in the acquisition of their property. The term alone has become a “hot” button nationally due to recent Supreme Court decisions and becomes a point of contention just on its utterance.

Impacted individuals include: home owners who have their entire lives wrapped up in their only real asset, their homes; small investors who have created retirement or supplemental income through rental property; renters (mostly students) who find the rentals more affordable than campus housing and other business owners.

Governmental entities impacted include: the City of Stillwater, which will have to redraw plans for streets and infrastructure, redo emergency planning and will lose bonding capacity; the school district, which will lose substantial tax base that has also been grossly understated by the University, much of which will not be replaced; Payne County from reduction of tax base.

The lack of a definitive implementation schedule has created a shroud over the entire planning area. Property and business owners in the entire area are now in a situation that their properties are not salable, no investment can be planned or made for the properties and erosion of investment occurred immediately upon announcement of the University’s intent. Areas outside of the Master Plan have received a windfall increase in value also due to the announcements.

Since the initial announcement has been made, the die is cast. No retraction will recover any of the confidence in the areas outlined. Intentions have been announced.

The implementation has been an unmitigated disaster. The combination of threats of use of eminent domain, suggestions in public forums that the first ones to get in line will get the best deals, refusals to answer the difficult questions, denials of facts (reference: the use of eminent domain in the certified letters), the attempts to segment property owners by requiring non-disclosure agreements and asking them to not tell of conversations with University officials, under-reporting various impacts, constant shifting of the plans and schedules, etc., have created an unrecoverable loss of credibility for the University administration.

The communications have been absolutely sophomoric in its lack of preparedness, assumptions of complicity and arrogance.

Realizing that the University must grow, changes must occur. This one has been handled so poorly that it raises questions of competency. It has certainly not been a professional endeavor.

All of these issues will ultimately fall squarely on the taxpayer both immediately, as acquisitions occurs and public funds are expended for accommodations and in the long term with the maintenance of the new facilities and areas.

I would like to urge the Board of Regents to consider whether they have confidence in this administration, whether viable alternatives for University expansion have been equitably considered and whether they condone the heavy-handedness that is being employed by the administration, not only with the Master Plan, but with attempts to take over the Tech Park and other projects currently being pursued.

Sincerely,
M. A. Crank

It is difficult for me to believe that the Board of Regents would possibly approve the proposed acquisition of homes and property from the OSU campus, North to Eskridge, in order to develop an underfunded Athletic Village. The citizens of Stillwater have great concerns regarding this acquisition for many reasons:

1. OSU already owns a tremendous amount of property in the City of Stillwater which would serve their purposes better, or at least, equally as well.

2. The closing of primary streets in the City. OSU will not directly state that Hall of Fame and McElroy will be closed, but they have certainly implied such. These are both streets the taxpayers have funded. OSU will simply “acquire” them, with no compensation to the City.

3. The method of the take over of approximately 410 properties, some are homes in which elderly people have resided for many years.

4. The fact that most people think of “fair” as meaning “equal”. Compensation offered to property owners being forced into “sales”, is not adequate to buy an equivalent home elsewhere in the City. Is that “fair”? A decision to sell, is not the property owner’s luxury..

5. A significant loss of tax revenue will negatively impact the City and the Schools. Stillwater taxpayers will be asked to “take up the slack” for loss of revenue due to OSU’s take over of the properties currently owned by Stillwater residents.

7. None of the above concerns is as great as the concern for the manner in which OSU has forged ahead with their plans, in total disregard and disrespect, not only for property owners, but for the citizens and the City of Stillwater as well.

OSU is proceeding as if the funding for the project is in place. In fact, according to Gary Clark, there is only limited funding, available for voluntary acquisitions of the said properties in the current master plan.
The university could use these funds to actually begin construction of the project if it would utilize land it already owns rather than destroying homes of Stillwater’s citizens.

OSU is also proceeding as if the Board of Regents has already approved the Master Plan. It is my understanding that approval or disapproval of the plan is not scheduled to take place until December, 2, 2005.

OSU has shown a great lack of sensitivity, and little desire to work with the City of Stillwater and its citizens. Much ill will toward the University has been created. In the past, there has been an honored and congenial partnership between the City of Stillwater and OSU. However, OSU is now adopting tactics of a corporate hostile take over. I experienced these same tactics when I lived in Bartlesville and Mr. Pickens attempted a take over of Phillips Petroleum Company. Surely these are not truly the tactics of our beloved Oklahoma State University. Is the tail wagging the dog?

I urge you NOT to approve the current proposed OSU Master Plan.

Ann Bernhardt Cramer Williams

I want to thank the many Stillwater residents that have expressed their support and concern to the property owners in the OSU Expansion area. It is truly appreciated by all of us! I know you are empathetic and probably glad you don’t live in the area, and thankful that it doesn’t directly effect you.

However, it DOES directly affect you. Stillwater residents voted a bond issue several years ago, to improve McGeorge Street (now Hall of Fame). OSU will close it to you now. Improvements made to McElroy: OSU has “implied” this street will also be closed to the public. North Washington will be closed to the south beginning at the Athletic Village.

Citizens voted a bond issue to repair sewer lines. Much of this repair was done in the proposed expansion area. There will be no reimbursement of monies paid to the City of Stillwater by OSU to recover ANY of these costs. YOU, the taxpayer paid for all of the above. OSU “acquires” it.

With closings of the main E/W arteries in our city, ANOTHER bond issue must be passed to make Lakeview the main E/W access and Country Club Road the main N/S access. YOU, the taxpayer will pay for those street improvements.

Stillwater residents will have to make up for loss of revenue to the City and schools, due to OSU’s acquisition of the 410+ properties in the area that will no longer be paying property taxes. OSU pays NO taxes. Total tax loss annually: $291,092.00. This includes loss of revenue to the schools: $181,997.00 annually. To Vo-Tech: annually, $42,849.

Loss of students attending Will Rogers School may result in closing the school, putting added pressure on other schools. The superintendent of Stillwater schools said the schools were offered a lump sum (not annually) of $554,000.00. He said this offer has not been accepted, to date. I don’t doubt that there are several other ways in which this plan will have an effect on the Citizens of Stillwater.

The City of Stillwater also PAYS OSU $400,000.00, annually, from our “use tax” each year.

OSU already owns a tremendous amount of property on which the Athletic Village could be built, property that would not require acquisition or put an unnecessary hardship on the citizens of Stillwater:

1. The area West of the Stadium (all the way to Blackwell Lake that could be utilized and still be contiguous with the Athletic hub. 2.The old golf course, North to Lakeview. 3. Properties at Western and Sixth.

The cost of acquisition of property, as compared to the completion of the Athletic Village, is a “drop in the bucket”. Donors and students will bear the cost of its completion. “Our main donor” could choose to pull out anytime. He doesn’t live in the City or Stillwater. YOU do. Detrimental changes to the City of Stillwater mean nothing to “our donor”.

I urge you to let your concerns be known through editorials, and emails to the Board of Regents, OSU Foundation, and the City of Stillwater’s governing powers. You can find links and contact information to all of the above on the website: okstateexpansion.com.

Ann Williams

847 W. Eskridge, Stillwater, Ok. 74075, (405) 780-7460 emai:anniewill@aol.com