SC4 Board of Trustees approves purchase of Marian Manor

The St. Clair Community College Board of Trustees voted 5-to-1 Thursday to approve a $1.2 million purchase agreement for a downtown Port Huron building.

The purchase agreement for the Marian Manor gives the college 75 days to close.

The property at 305 Bard St. is currently owned by Kristine and Robert Edie.

SC4 will potentially use the property for additional student housing, pending inspections.

Trustee John Lusk was the only one to vote against the agreement. Trustee Nicholas DeGrazia was not present at the meeting.

Newly elected trustees Kim Brown and Kristin Ryan were not able to vote because they will not be seated until January. They take the seats of trustees Randall Fernandez and Fred Roberts.

Kirk Kramer, SC4's chief operating officer, said transitioning Marian Manor into housing would be cheaper and faster than constructing a new building. It would cost the college at least $6 million and take two years to build a new facility the same size as Marian Manor.

SC4 has reserved funding it can use to purchase the building. However, to conserve some funding, Kramer said SC4 has the opportunity to use Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding. SC4 received $542,517 from the funding and the college needs to submit a request for approval to use the funds for the purchase.

"Guidelines for these funds does allow for the purchase of property for housing purposes," Kramer said. "The request tonight it to fund the purchase so we can submit to HEERF for approval to use the funding."

However, if HEERF denies SC4, the college is financially sound to use reserved funding, according to Kramer.

He also stated that it would raise SC4’s housing capacity from 110 to 133, which he said was conservative compared to other community colleges in Michigan, which average at 175.

The cost for students to live in the new dorms is yet to be determined.

Lusk said he voted no on the property agreement purchase because he felt his questions regarding enrollment, housing needs and HEERF guidelines were not adequately answered at the meeting. In the frequently asked questions section of the HEERF guidelines, it references that in submitting a proposal for a construction, renovation or real property project, institutions must describe how the proposed project is connected to preventing, preparing for or responding to coronavirus.

"I cannot in good conscious vote for something that's unanswered in terms of the requirements for the funding," Lusk said.

Trustee Marcia Robbins said before the vote that she thinks the additional housing will benefit the students and community. She said she researched community college housing and found that students were more likely to be academically successful. Additionally, living on campus would give students better access to resources provided by the college.

"It makes sense to me that it will be easier for students to access resources like tutoring, the food pantry and counseling if they live on campus," Robbins said.

She also found that it would attract students to the college and therefor increase enrollment.

Board President Karen Niver said before voting that Marian Manor used to be used as housing in the 1970's. At the time, it was owned by the League of Catholic Women and a women's only apartment building. She said she felt that Marian Manor was built for housing.

"We could resurrect an older structure and bring it back to its original purpose," Niver said.

Contact McKenna Golat at mgolat@gannett.com or (810) 292-0122.