Michigan to Break Ground on New Runway and Helipad
Erica Graham
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News
The University of Michigan broke ground on a new runway and helipad for the school, with target completion date of Fall 2009. Three ongoing areas of contention continue to be the center of debate: the policy used to dictate the use of the runway, potential endorsements/naming rights to the runway, and city involvement with the facility.
Current (and heated) discussions revolve over those persons granted access to the heliport and runway. At the present, the University of Michigan Medical School and Hospital want to ensure that their patient, doctors, and transplant units have full and unrestricted access to the facilities, as their current helipad suffers from heavy overflow. However, the University is considering this investment solely from a financial modeling perspective. These representatives from the finance office claim that heliport/runway will need to be independently financed, due to FY2008 economic projections for the nation and the state of Michigan (see endorsement information below). Thus, because the Ross School of Business has the necessary connections to prominent alum and wealthy donors, the Business School is likely to retain primary control of the facilities, boxing out the medical personnel. The Business School has submitted its recruiting calendar to the university, so that the heliport may be reserved for local recruiters and the runway reserved for the private planes of companies recruiting from further away as well as the Miami Dolphins football players. However, only A-list recruiters will be included on these reservation lists, as Ross OMS professors found that only a certain percentage of recruiters need to be satisfied to shift Ross rankings back into a leadership position.
Related to the potential endorsements/naming rights to the runway, Dean Robert Dolan has indicated that he has 3 companies in a bidding war over this sponsorship. (An unnamed source indicates that Dolan acquired this training at Harvard, as this was one of the favorite procedures used to generate enough revenue to name buildings after donors.) Weighing into the decision is the number of students hired by each of these companies, history of campus recruiting, and compliance with mandatory release of interview feedback. Dolan believes that if he were to give a company naming rights, Ross students should at least be able to access their interview feedbacks in return. Despite such strict guidelines, recruiters were clamoring to become the first sponsor of the university heliport/runway.
One final issue relates to the city involvement with the facilities. As per FAA regulations, the airport has to comply with safety checks and Homeland Security involvement. However, the city of Ann Arbor claims that a new university airport would conflict with Ann Arbor's General Aviation airport, and that the school should simply use the Ann Arbor facilities. But the University still believes that the trek down Main Street would be too far and, therefore, discourage recruiters form visiting campus, especially considering the extremely harsh winter conditions experienced this past year.
On the opposing side to this debate is the wealth of student apartment and house owners who feel that their units will be threatened by loud planes and helicopters flying in and out of the pattern. Also, university employees and city officials are worried about the added car traffic that would be created by this facility - as more parking spaces will be needed for pilots and travelers. The strongest opposition to the facility comes from those companies who recruit the fewest number of students from the University. They believe that their recruiters will be at a disadvantage when the students see that their company does not have access to the heliport and still provides car transportation to its employees. Such levels of disagreement are causing friction between the once civil recruiters at competing companies. Yet, despite some opposition, construction plans are likely to be set in motion within the next month.
Once the facilities are approved within the University, the next steps will be determining where the pilots will be recruited from. Given the large number of former military members enrolled in the business school, Ross believes it will have a substantial number of student pilots to draw from - and it can always pilfer Northwest Airlines for their pilots if need. Lastly, faculty and OCD use is subject to availability and Dolan must approve each trip prior to departure. And next up for student debate is the airport code: RSB, MBS, or R#1 anyone? Don't worry, the survey will be blasted to all students through iMpact.
Editor's Note: The following article is a fictional story to celebrate April Fool's Day!
Current (and heated) discussions revolve over those persons granted access to the heliport and runway. At the present, the University of Michigan Medical School and Hospital want to ensure that their patient, doctors, and transplant units have full and unrestricted access to the facilities, as their current helipad suffers from heavy overflow. However, the University is considering this investment solely from a financial modeling perspective. These representatives from the finance office claim that heliport/runway will need to be independently financed, due to FY2008 economic projections for the nation and the state of Michigan (see endorsement information below). Thus, because the Ross School of Business has the necessary connections to prominent alum and wealthy donors, the Business School is likely to retain primary control of the facilities, boxing out the medical personnel. The Business School has submitted its recruiting calendar to the university, so that the heliport may be reserved for local recruiters and the runway reserved for the private planes of companies recruiting from further away as well as the Miami Dolphins football players. However, only A-list recruiters will be included on these reservation lists, as Ross OMS professors found that only a certain percentage of recruiters need to be satisfied to shift Ross rankings back into a leadership position.
Related to the potential endorsements/naming rights to the runway, Dean Robert Dolan has indicated that he has 3 companies in a bidding war over this sponsorship. (An unnamed source indicates that Dolan acquired this training at Harvard, as this was one of the favorite procedures used to generate enough revenue to name buildings after donors.) Weighing into the decision is the number of students hired by each of these companies, history of campus recruiting, and compliance with mandatory release of interview feedback. Dolan believes that if he were to give a company naming rights, Ross students should at least be able to access their interview feedbacks in return. Despite such strict guidelines, recruiters were clamoring to become the first sponsor of the university heliport/runway.
One final issue relates to the city involvement with the facilities. As per FAA regulations, the airport has to comply with safety checks and Homeland Security involvement. However, the city of Ann Arbor claims that a new university airport would conflict with Ann Arbor's General Aviation airport, and that the school should simply use the Ann Arbor facilities. But the University still believes that the trek down Main Street would be too far and, therefore, discourage recruiters form visiting campus, especially considering the extremely harsh winter conditions experienced this past year.
On the opposing side to this debate is the wealth of student apartment and house owners who feel that their units will be threatened by loud planes and helicopters flying in and out of the pattern. Also, university employees and city officials are worried about the added car traffic that would be created by this facility - as more parking spaces will be needed for pilots and travelers. The strongest opposition to the facility comes from those companies who recruit the fewest number of students from the University. They believe that their recruiters will be at a disadvantage when the students see that their company does not have access to the heliport and still provides car transportation to its employees. Such levels of disagreement are causing friction between the once civil recruiters at competing companies. Yet, despite some opposition, construction plans are likely to be set in motion within the next month.
Once the facilities are approved within the University, the next steps will be determining where the pilots will be recruited from. Given the large number of former military members enrolled in the business school, Ross believes it will have a substantial number of student pilots to draw from - and it can always pilfer Northwest Airlines for their pilots if need. Lastly, faculty and OCD use is subject to availability and Dolan must approve each trip prior to departure. And next up for student debate is the airport code: RSB, MBS, or R#1 anyone? Don't worry, the survey will be blasted to all students through iMpact.
Editor's Note: The following article is a fictional story to celebrate April Fool's Day!
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