CMU Board of Trustees to vote on several construction projects
Central Michigan University President Neil MacKinnon sits beside Dr. Denise Williams Mallett, chair of the Board of Trustees before the first Board meeting of the year begins in Bovee University Center, on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. This was Chair Mallett's first meeting in her new role. (CM-Life | Cristin Coppess)
The Central Michigan University Board of Trustees will vote on naming and approving the entire project cost of CMU’s medical education building in Saginaw at its formal meeting Thursday.
The first resolution will approve the name to be MyMichigan Health CMU Medical Education Building to recognize MyMichigan’s donation of $40 million to the project.
The second resolution is the final step to seek approval for the $100 million project cost of the medical education building, said Vice President Mary Hill at the Board’s Finance and Facilities committee meeting today.
Central Michigan Life previously reported that CMU received $80 million in gifts from Covenant HealthCare and MyMichigan Health to support the development of the new College of Medicine’s education building in Saginaw.
At this point, the project is at 50% of design development and has brought Clark Construction as its construction manager, Hill said. The ground can be broken near the end of September, and ready for the move in the summer of 2028, she said.
Another resolution that the Board will vote on Thursday is the construction of the CMU’s Welcome Center. It will be located on the north end of campus to welcome the visitors and strengthen community engagement, according to Andrew Reihl, the director of university engineering and planning.
“New front door facility would also create a new centralized home for key outward-facing functions, including admissions, alumni advancement, university marketing communications, allowing further implementation of our master plan, and allowing for future demolition of Carlin Alumni House, built in 1941, and West Hall, built in ’42,” Reihl said.
Smith Hall is a potential site for the Welcome Center, which is why its demolition is also on the consent agenda Thursday. Smith Hall was built in 1934 and “outlived its useful life,” according to Hill.
In addition, the committee’s chair, Edward Plawecki, said the Board will approve tuition for the next academic year at the formal meeting Thursday.
“The full numbers will be devolved there under the cap with the state of Michigan,” Plawecki said. “We remain one of the best cost providers for both undergraduate tuition of our 15 public universities.”
The overall budget will be moved to approval as well, he said.
“We have had it made cuts due to the fact of mostly declining enrollment with international students, with things out of our control from the federal government,” Plawecki said.
At the enrollment, retention and student success committee meeting Wednesday, Trustee Jeff Stoutenburg said the university’s enrollment for the fall is down.
“It's due in large part to several factors and headwinds that are out of our control and not unique to CMU, things such as declining demographics of college-age students, international visa changes and policy changes that impact ability of internationals to come here, and changes in federal financial aid programs,” Stoutenburg said.
However, Stoutenburg said, the domestic student enrollment is expected to be up this fall, with the freshman class being around 2,000 students. He also said CMU is having “good progress” with retention and is seeing a growth in students attending a CMU authorized charter school.
In other news:
- The Board will vote on establishing a new undergraduate degree, the Bachelor of Applied Science.
- Stoutenburg said CMU is on track for a significant exceeding of its advancement goal for the year.
- The agenda for the formal session also includes three traffic control items. One of them could potentially allow a shared parking permit.
- A new committee, Innovation and Workforce Partnership, will focus on monitoring the success of one online academic program and one online non-academic program, Provost Paula Lancaster said. The committee will also look for ways to support international students enrolling in online programs and grow CMU’s digital presence.
