The recent decision by the MSU Board of Trustees to spend more than $80 million to renovate three buildings on campus flies in the face of what students have been told in the recent past.

I sat on a committee that met with MSU President M. Peter McPherson and the board to discuss expanding the MSU Multicultural Center. In those meetings, we had asked for assistance in helping to raise funds for the expansion. Both the president and the board repeatedly rebuffed those calls, stating that they did not have the capabilities to help us raise the funds necessary for the proposed expansion due to the stagnant economy (the amount of funds pales in comparison to the amount approved last Friday).

Now we have MSU spokesman Terry Denbow stating that a stagnant economy won't affect the fund-raising goals of university policymakers ("Trustees to consider expansions").

Apparently the university administration doesn't feel its students are intelligent enough to notice dishonesty and hypocrisy.

Bryan Newland
2003 graduate