Almost 19 months ago, then-MSU President M. Peter McPherson pitched a plan to the MSU Board of Trustees to move the university's medical school to Grand Rapids.
Later that afternoon, McPherson announced his plans to resign at the end of the year.
"It was a pretty dramatic day, to say the very least," said East Lansing City Councilmember and former Mayor Mark Meadows, who was present at the board meeting to testify in opposition to the plan.
McPherson's proposal — which originally called for a transplant of the College of Human Medicine to Grand Rapids — was met with strong opposition in both the MSU and Lansing communities.
"It was an impossible plan. It could not be achieved. And the trustees, frankly, approving it seemed to me to be not really doing their job," Meadows said.
That plan, known as the Bowersox report, has since been abandoned. On Nov. 16, stakeholders in the project rolled out the blueprint for a new school in west Michigan that wouldn't diminish the East Lansing campus.
At least on the surface, tensions have calmed considerably. On the same day the stakeholders met in Grand Rapids, local leaders gathered at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce to endorse the plan.
Meadows, along with Lansing government leaders, voiced his support for the expansion in its latest form.
Officials say relationships between local hospitals, the university and the city — which have at times been strained — are improving.
Lansing-area leaders were briefed on details before the announcement, and they met with MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon within the last month to discuss the project.
"At the meeting, I think she candidly described the status," Meadows said. "We were well-informed."
The only surprise, he said, was how little impact the current plan should have on the capital area.
A guarded optimism is emanating from Lansing about the issue — but that hasn't always been the case.
The community first caught wind that a move was being discussed when McPherson addressed questions during a talk at a local rotary club. Meadows characterized McPherson's response as "evasive."
"That generated a response by local leaders who were stunned that there was this planning going on and nobody knew about it," said David Wiener, executive assistant to the Lansing mayor.
In the following months, area officials met regularly amongst themselves and with the university to discuss the project. They commissioned a local firm to evaluate the Bowersox report. The firm concluded the idea was an "ill-conceived," "high-risk strategy" that would "inflict harm on the Lansing community."
McPherson maintains that the Bowersox plan was intended to be only a beginning.
"We always said it was going to evolve," he said. "Plans always change. Unless somebody proposes something, then it just sits around and doesn't move."
Lansing officials guessed that in addition to the opportunities available in Grand Rapids, an inability to establish effective partnerships with local hospitals might have motivated university administrators to look outside of Lansing.
"A lot of that has been addressed and worked through," Wiener said. "Although there's always competition between Sparrow Health System and Ingham Regional Medical Center, they have become partners in some areas. There's a lot more cooperation and goodwill now then there ever was before."
Wiener said Lansing hasn't been able to grow at the same rate as Grand Rapids.
"We're in OK economic condition right now. We're stable and we're growing," Wiener said. "From a manufacturing point of view, we still continue to be on the map, on the world map."
High-tech manufacturing could be a niche for the Lansing area, he said. The recent announcement that General Motors Corp. is closing two local plants hasn't shaken his confidence — city officials had been aware those plants were in line to be closed. A new GM plant is already operating in Lansing, and another is being built in Delta Township.
Simon has asked local leaders to consider the possibilities of economic development through MSU's veterinary and agricultural programs, instead of focusing only on human medicine.
"We certainly don't have the resources to offer that Grand Rapids does," Lansing City Councilmember Sandy Allen said.
But officials contend that the Lansing region does have a large and diverse population and plenty to offer the health care industry. Biotech start-ups such as Neogen Corp. and BioPort Corp. have been successful.
Lorri Rishar, a spokeswoman for Sparrow Hospital, pointed to new partnerships between the hospitals and the university in areas such as graduate medical education and a proposed digital health information system.
Health care is now the third largest employer in the area — after the state and the university and before GM. About 14,000 area residents now work in the industry, Wiener said.
Fostering the medical industry is crucial to the region's growth, officials said.
They say information has recently been flowing between the community and university — something that had dried up during much of the planning process.
As of Tuesday, Lansing City Council had yet to be briefed on the status of the project. Councilmember Carol Wood said the community has been patient in letting the process play out.
"They're willing to deal with that as long as they believe they still have a voice," Wood said. "So often, these things happen in a vacuum."
East Lansing Mayor Pro Tem Vic Loomis said he's personally concerned about the need to move the college's dean to Grand Rapids, but that action might be "nothing more than symbolism."
"I'm encouraged when I read that there's initially no impact (on the East Lansing campus)," Loomis said.
Officials are hoping the lure of expanded clinical and scientific research possibilities in Grand Rapids won't weaken MSU's presence in Lansing.
"They'd be remiss if they weren't looking at it," Meadows said. "I don't have a problem with the university expanding medical services into Grand Rapids — (but) I want us to be the center."
Bob Darrow can be reached at darrowro@msu.edu
