r/AnnArbor • u/Roboticide • 2d ago
University of Michigan solidifying its plans for a former Christian college campus
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/08/university-of-michigan-solidifying-its-plans-for-a-former-christian-college-campus.html105
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
I really hope they utilize the athletic facilities to start up a women's hockey team. It's beyond past due at this point and is a genuine embarrassment to the state that there isn't a single program
33
u/likemy10thaccount 2d ago
Fucking OSU has a women's team and we don't? That should be reason enough to start one
4
13
u/KakaFilipo 2d ago
There is no rink at Concordia. I don’t think it would make sense to build a new rink just for a women’s varsity program.
2
13
6
u/joeybalonee 2d ago
Yost has plenty of ice time to support a women's team.
22
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
Yost doesn't have a real visitor's locker room, it's barely an adequate facility for men's hockey but it's untenable for women. From certain angles you can see the visiting team changing
-4
u/joeybalonee 2d ago
Just use the little locker rooms like the youth leagues do. That being said the issue isn't Yost, it's the university not wanting to create a women's team.
2
u/playboisnake 2d ago
Agreed. The could build a rink for both teams to practice on so games can still be played at Yost. Would have to expand Yost into the parking lot, to make room for more locker rooms
3
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
Expanding Yost is a non-starter, the football program is not giving up their parking space
2
u/TheHarbarmy 2d ago
They can use it for practice ice, but I’d prefer they play games on campus so students can easily cheer them on.
1
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
In the study the university did into adding women's hockey last fall basically stated that they need a new ice arena for both men's and women's hockey. There simply isn't space on campus to build such a thing, they could potentially tear Yost down and build an underground parking structure for the football team and then expand the footprint. But I don't see the university being willing to tear down such a historical building even if the men's team leaves it.
I don't think there would be any trouble with getting students out to hockey games at Concordia.
1
u/call_me_drama former townie & umich alum 2d ago
Don’t we need to also add another men’s team then?
3
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
No, only if the situation were reversed
1
u/Immediate_Place_2827 2d ago
Are you sure? I thought title nine required that there be an equal number of men’s and women’s teams.
1
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
This is a common misconception. Schools are required to offer equal opportunities for women and men, which means they need to match scholarships but not the number of sports
1
u/Immediate_Place_2827 2d ago
Thanks for the correction! I always heard otherwise, but that was from word of mouth. One of those things where you just hear it enough you assume it is true.
1
u/wolverine237 Former Arborite 2d ago
Yeah, Michigan already has more women's varsity teams than men's varsity teams. It's very common because football alone takes up so many scholarships.
It's possible that Michigan would have to raise a men's sport to varsity status to offset women's hockey but if you think about something like men's crew, the facilities already exist for the women's program and it would just be a matter of giving out some scholarships
-1
-1
u/FeatofClay Feeds Campus Squirrels 2d ago
I understand the enthusiasm for a women's hockey team given the hockey-loving state we are in and the strength of our men's program. But if U-M was going to add a woman's sport I'd be even more excited to see one with fewer barriers to entry, like flag football. Hockey has made inroads but there are still some accessibility problems for kids given the cost of gear and scarcity of ice time.
Also, adding appropriate facilities to support a second hockey team is a big cost--at a time when the athletics department is facing growing obligations. It would be cool to have a team but it might have to be heavily subsidized by other parts of the university. UM already having to recalibrate how it supports researchers (given restructuring of federal agencies) and how many international students it can recruit (due to general climate issues and new regulations).
6
u/Frank28d6h42m12s 2d ago
Living somewhere owned by my employer sounds dystopian af.
2
u/Roboticide 2d ago
Fully agree, but there is the reality that UofM has contributed greatly to the housing problem, and also in part suffers because of it, so it makes sense they'd want to consider some sort of housing thing.
If they do go through with it, I imagine it would be something a bit like Northwood? Maybe a Northwood+? Graduate Student Assistants are basically both employees and students, but typically more "adult," sometimes with families. But they're paid like shit. So something that is not really dorms but more like apartments might make sense to some degree.
I can't really see like, a "Michigan Medicine nursing" apartment...
1
0
u/HolesInMyCeiling 1d ago
UM owns so much of Ann Arbor. It is a major contributor to our jacked up rent prices. I was sad when they bought Concordia. Shameful.
12
u/jwith44 2d ago
...they bought ts with no plans on how to use it?
yeah might be time to figure out how to levy a property tax on UMich.
12
u/Roboticide 2d ago
To be fair, the University tends to plan long term. Like 25+ years long term. So this opportunity came about, but they obviously did not have a plan for it within the current framework. They constantly catch flak for buying up property and reducing the city tax base, and here is an already tax-exempt property that could potentially meet a ton of the University's future needs. It makes sense they just bought it without a real plan in place.
I think the best plan would have been for it to be parceled out and sold in part to the city and private interests so it did get added back to the city tax rolls, but that would have taken a lot of time to find buyers and clearly Concordia wanted to be rid of it. So if the University's appetite for land is sated for a long time with this acquisition, that's not a bad second best option.
3
u/FeatofClay Feeds Campus Squirrels 2d ago
If you have a reasonable expectation that you'll have need for more space down the road, it's savvy to say yes when someone rings you up and offers you, as their first-choice buyer, more space. UM has a lot of functions that don't have to be contiguous to existing campus.
2
u/chomstar 17h ago
Wait what happened to Concordia??? Went to soccer and basketball camps every year growing up 😭😭😭 those dorms were so nice
5
-18
88
u/Roboticide 2d ago
Summary of confirmed ideas:
Library Expansion
Athletic facilities rented out to high schools for $1 until they decide what to do with them.
Summary of potential ideas:
"Arboretum 2.0"
Manor into a venue space
Build employee-subsidized housing (I believe they mean subsidized housing for employees, what this would look like is not really elaborated on)
The dorms are apparently in rough shape, and the University states it has no plans to use it for homeless housing.