OXFORD, Ohio — Students and staff announced a protest of Miami University's $281 million proposal to demolish Millett Hall, the facilities that now house the school's basketball and volleyball programs, and replace it with a new, modern building in the center of campus.
They plan to gather at the Marcum Center at 8:45 a.m. Friday ahead of a 9 a.m. board of trustees meeting, where the board will consider the plan's approval.
WATCH: We heard from people on both sides of the demolition debate
Miami University senior Bri Fitzgerald told us she plans to be there after helping to organize a survey where people on campus and in Oxford got to weigh in on the prospect of a new facility.
Fitzgerald said she's not against the idea that the teams do likely need a new home.
"I can get behind the idea of a new arena as our sports teams become more successful, like our basketball team, and I support that," Fitzgerald said.
She and others couldn't, however, get behind the more than a quarter-billion-dollar debt that came with the university's plan.
"That's hundreds and hundreds of students' tuition, like, total," Fitzgerald said.
Senior Ashley Reynolds told us she would speak to the board Friday morning. She, too, said she was concerned about spending priorities.
"I actually came to Miami for a social justice major, which they have in recent years gotten rid of because they didn't have the funding for it," Reynolds said.
The survey also revealed that most respondents didn't support placing a new facility on what's now green space on Cook Field.
The plan has received backing from one associate professor on campus, Adam Beissel, who initially approached the idea of a new arena on campus with some skepticism.
Beissel studies projects like what's now proposed on campus globally, and he told us he's come around to support the project.
"I go into a lot of my work with a critical lens because the history of these things isn't so great," he said.
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Beissel told us the Miami proposal has a sound plan and financial backing, and he said it's necessary to replace the aging and antiquated Millett Hall.
"When Millett Hall was built, and it's over 60 years old now, it was built when we had one major NCAA team. Now we have three," he said.
Beissel also said that Millett Hall has accrued tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance costs and isn't up to modern ADA compliance.
WCPO will update this story after the trustee meeting with the decision from the board.
