ALLENDALE, Mich. — Grand Valley State University faculty, staff and students are raising concerns about major spending decisions and what they describe as a lack of input from the campus community. More than 200 people signed a letter directed at university leadership, citing worries about shifting priorities and rising costs.
WATCH: GVSU faculty, students raise concerns over university direction
Geology Professor Figen Mekik, who signed the letter, said the divide between leadership and the campus community is at the heart of the issue.
"The crux of the issue is that our senior leadership team has a very different vision for the institution than its faculty and students do. It's not necessarily a bad vision, but it's a very different one," Mekik said.
The letter says the concerns stem from a series of decisions that shift money and priorities away from students while ignoring pressing issues on campus. Among those concerns is the university's move to open enrollment, which Mekik says has strained existing resources.
"We have open enrollment now. So now our classrooms are full of people, students who are not really prepared for college, and that's fine if you have the infrastructure for it, but we don't," Mekik said.
One of the largest flashpoints is the $166 million Blue Dot Tech Hub at GVSU's downtown Grand Rapids campus. The project, approved by the Board of Trustees last month, includes a renovation of the L.V. Eberhard Center and the construction of a new Blue Dot Lab. Faculty leaders say they only learned about the project days before the board vote.
"If it was like, look, we're going into debt, but we're going to bring in so many computing students, and they're all going to pay tuition, and that's going to help the people in the environmental sciences, or that's going to help the people in the school of nursing or whatever, of course. Nobody's gonna say no to that, but that's just not there. Nobody has presented this," Mekik said.
Read the open letter below:
Open Letter to GVSU Board of Trustees by news
As the university continues to invest in large scale projects, tuition at Grand Valley State has continued to rise, rivaling the cost of tuition at Michigan State University. According to university data, in the 2015-16 school year, fall semester tuition cost $5,539. In the 2025-26 school year, it was $7,936.
Kali Hall, a junior at GVSU, said keeping up with the increases has been a growing challenge.
"I feel like every year being here, it's been, you know, one more thing and one more thing. So it's hard to manage," Hall said.
In a statement from the office of University President Philomena Mantella, the university said every decision it makes is "guided by our mission to serve students and the community and address the pressing talent need in the state." The statement added that the changes being implemented are not a departure from the university's mission, but are intended to ensure the university can fulfill it.
University leaders also said they are and have been actively listening to and engaging with faculty, staff and student leaders, and expressed enthusiasm for executing a student-focused strategy recently approved by the Board of Trustees.
Mekik said she hopes the letter will open a broader conversation with university leadership.
"We want our board to be aware that this is a much bigger concern than just a couple of loud mouths that show up at board meetings," Mekik said. "This is a good faith effort to say these are our three big concerns, and we want the board to hear it. Please hear us and respond accordingly."
Read the full letter from GVSU's Office of the President below:
"University leaders are and have been actively listening to and engaging with faculty, staff, and student leaders through numerous channels, governance groups and student leadership organizations. We understand and appreciate that in dynamic environments, questions and disagreement can arise, and we value the meaningful structures and venues for respectful dialog to occur.
Every decision we make is guided by our mission to serve students and community and address the pressing talent needs in our state. The landscape of higher education is evolving, and responsible leadership requires us to align our resources with the areas of greatest impact. These changes are not stepping away from our mission—they ensure we can fulfill it. We remain excited about our important work to execute our student-focused strategy recently approved by our Board of Trustees."
— Office of Grand Valley State University President Philomena Mantella
