The Oregon Legislature needed to approve of the SEC/MU project to give OUS the authorization to proceed with bond sales and therefore the construction.  For the past several weeks, we have been answering questions about the project, as legislative members on the House Ways and Means Capital Construction Committee raised them with OSU officials.  I regret to inform you that the committee failed to include the SEC/MU project in HB5006.  This will cause us a significant delay that will postpone the completion of our Design Development Phase scheduled to begin in July for an undetermined number of months and also delay construction completion beyond our desired summer of 2013.   The failure to approve of a non-State funded construction project is unusual.  I cannot recall a similar situation in my twenty-five years, but there’s a first time for everything.

The delay has many complicating side effects that we are still trying to measure.  The most important message that I can give you now is that we will not give up pursuing what the students of the institution have legitimately approved through their vote.  We have followed every procedural expectation over the five-year path to get to this point.  Likewise, we must also learn to adjust our planning with this delay…no matter how much we each may feel the disappointment or dislike the effects.  Today will feel insignificant when we compare it to the elation of stepping into these new program homes for the first time or the benefits that will come from the collaborations and improved resources for highly valued student experiences

Michael Henthorne, Director OSU Memorial Union