PDF August 2003 email from EMU President Kirkpatrick  PDF June 2002 email from EMU President Kirkpatrick

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By Steve Wilson
Web Produced by Jennifer DiDomenico
March 2, 2004

It’s the story Eastern Michigan University just wants to go away - the costly castle built for the school’s president while there’s too little money for other projects on campus.

Sources confirm it’s a flap that has not only deeply divided the campus and the community in Ypsilanti, but the controversy and how he’s handled it is said to have just cost EMU President Sam Kirkpatrick a chance to be chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

For years, an on-campus residence housed five Eastern Michigan University presidents since 1949. But about 3 years ago, many were shocked when Samuel Kirkpatrick came to campus as president but immediately moved into a different university house miles away with an Ann Arbor address.

Wilson: And you think it was part of the deal for him to come to be president here?

State Rep. Ruth Ann Jamnick/D-Ypsilanti Twp: I believe it was part of the understanding when he and his wife came.

Like Oakland is to San Francisco, Ypsilanti and EMU live in the shadow of Ann Arbor and U-M.

"So a lot of community leaders and longtime residents felt that was very much a slap in the face and that you’re immediately telling us that we aren’t good enough for you to live with," Rep. Jamnick told Action News.

And it got worse in a hurry when the regents decided the historic, on-campus president’s house would be sold to a sorority and construction would begin on a new campus home for the EMU president.

And so they have built a 10,200 square foot mansion that occupies eight acres, 25% more than an entire city block. As we’ve been reporting this week, much of the cost was buried in other university accounts. Not even the $403,000 cost of the land the university bought to build it upon is figured into the cost the university claims. Most agree the total price tag lies somewhere between 5 and 6 million dollars—on a campus that can’t afford to renovate two classroom buildings and keep all its student housing in good repair.

Although Kirkpatrick and the university say they’ve done nothing improper—and the regents commissioned a report to make that point—President Kirkpatrick has never really faced any personal accountability for the house, because, according to him, the regents are responsible.

"It is our board responsibility," Kirkpatrick told Action News. "This is a projected that started before I came."

Many, including Rep. Jamnick, agree that despite officials’ denials, building a big new presidential palace where the president could live was part of the deal that lured him here.

Although he has ducked and distanced himself from personal involvement, Action News has obtained email correspondence confirming that he and his wife were closely involved with orders for changes and upgrades to the house worth about $135,000.

He complained about it bitterly:

"I was outraged to learn that cabinets had not been orders and also that I had been deceived," he wrote in the e-mail.
"?It might take four weeks to get the cabinetry and this is unacceptable," he continues.

When dignitaries and donors see the condition of the house, he wrote:

"We will be embarrassed and I will be the one who has to respond to the situation."

In the email last August, he went on to complain about a "lack of light dimmers", "paint touchup" required throughout the house, and what he said were "filthy windows" and paper tags still on the skylights.

Kirkpatrick: They weren’t my custom made cabinets. They were cabinets that were part of the building project.

Wilson: And you were livid that the state and the organization that was paying for this with public money wasn’t going to have your cabinets in to hold your china.

Kirkpatrick: They were not paid for by state appropriations and they were not paid for by tuition, you know that.

Wilson: What I know is when you get a million dollars from Coca-Cola and from a bank, that the money can go for a lot of things other than custom cabinets for your china.

Kirkpatrick: Well, you’ll need to, ah, er, I’ll be happy to have you look at the work orders.

Wilson: I’ve seen all the work orders, Sir, and they contradict what you’re trying to tell me now which is why I want to sit down and go over them with you in detail. Will you do so?

Kirkpatrick: I had never seen those work orders until very, very recently.

Wilson: Well then let’s look at these memos. How about these memos with your name on it?

Kirkpatrick: No, no, no.

The precious China? It’s now still sitting in a closed pantry on shelves from Home Depot.

Pamela Kirkpatrick, the president’s wife, fancies herself an interior designer and helped design and decorate the costly castle.

Inside the house shortly after she moved in, a neighbor reports the university’s first lady was bragging about her $3200 bedspread and insisting food could never actually be cooked in the $75,000 commercial kitchen because she objected to the odors that waft through the house.

She was inside the house at a charity event when we were there, but dashed off to her bedroom when we tried to speak with her.

Amidst the controversy that won’t go away, Kirkpatrick himself has been pitching hard to get away to the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where he’s been trying to get hired as the new chancellor.

"I’ve never felt that Mr. Kirkpatrick would be here any more than the terms of his contract," Rep. Jamnick told us.

Kirkpatrick won’t be moving now. He withdrew his name after it was made clear the house issue was too much baggage for Wisconsin officials to take, according to our sources there. It may be just as well: the chancellor’s residence that goes with that job is nothing compared to the place he hangs his hat now.

To compare, the home of America’s highest paid university president, U-M’s Mary Sue Coleman, is a nice house on the campus there where they have recently refurbished the kitchen. Otherwise, inside it is a charming, historical house. When it comes to luxury, it can’t really hold a candle to the presidential palace at EMU.

Representative Jamnick asked the Michigan state auditor to investigate. Action News will let you know when that report is released and what it says. We have had no further word from EMU's president.