BY MARTHA MARRAZZA

In print | Published November 13, 2008

Representatives from Swarthmore’s administration met with members of a planning committee to discuss the proposed inn on Nov. 11. The focus was on plans for moving forward in light of the current financial conditions, said Stu Hain, vice president for facilities and services.

Although Swarthmore has been seriously involved in the planning of the inn since last May, the recent meeting was an opportunity for the developers to present a new, more realistic plan given the state of the economy, Hain said. “With the economy doing what it did, it’s made the developer back up, slow down a little and think about what’s possible,” he said. “We’ve been working out the details of the land leases and development agreement, but the plan they presented last spring may change some as a result of what’s happening in credit markets and the economy in general.”

Talks will continue into December, Hain said. “We’re talking more about financing now, and how can we finance this project,” Hain said. “I hate to be so nebulous, but that’s just the way it is. It’s still not clear how it’s going to come out. I still think people are pretty certain we’re going to do this, the question is how quickly.”

At this point in the process, plans for the inn somewhat depend on how much state and outside funding the project can obtain. “It turns out that it’s really hard to tell where we’re going to wind up,” Hain said. “A part of this depends on the developer’s ability to get some support through the state, but we don’t know what they might get out of that fund.”

Members of the planning group are set to meet again next Tuesday to hone their financial plans, Hain said. “I think the team, the developer, the folks from Swat and our consultants are getting better and better,” he said. “There’s just still an awful lot of work to do. We’re going to meet again next Tuesday afternoon, and we’ll talk more about numbers.”

Hain said the recent financial crisis has slowed plans for the inn. “I thought I’d be able to go to the board and the property committee in December, but we’re not there yet,” he said.

“It’s a process that has a lot of unknowns right now. I think it’s taking a lot longer than anyone anticipated at this point. Once we figure out how it’s going to happen it will go pretty quickly, but I think we’re still trying to pin down a moving target,” Hain said.

Taking into account potential setbacks and lengthy approval processes, Hain estimated that work on the inn will start in a little over a year. “If I had to guess, I think we’re talking about starting in 14-20 months from now,” he said. “That seems awfully long from now, but that’s what it’s going to take, assuming that all the approval processes work reasonably well.”

On campus, student members of the Swarthmore Labor Action Project have already started a campaign to ensure that future employees of the inn will have fair working conditions. “We want to make sure that workers at the inn have the choice to form a union or not,” Alexa Malishchak ’09 said. “This summer I worked for a union representing hotel workers, and I saw firsthand how empowering a union in the workplace could be for employees. I thought it was a great idea to approach the administration about.”

SLAP organized a panel with hotel workers last Monday to raise awareness on campus. “Monday’s panel was an awareness event to talk about the conditions that can exist in hotels,” SLAP member Erin Heaney ’09 said. “We don’t think that the Swarthmore Inn will offer bad jobs, we just want people to be aware of what happens in the hotel industry and what the differences of working in a democratic workplace are versus working in an environment where you’re not allowed to speak up or organize democratically.”

Heaney said the administration has been very responsive to SLAP’s concerns so far. “The administration has been fabulous. They’ve indicated that they plan to have good quality jobs,” she said. “In the next few weeks we’re going to speak with members of the administration about our specific requests, and we feel very optimistic about their cooperation. We’re looking forward to beginning the conversation.”

Hain said he is in contact with students from SLAP and is aware of their concerns. “I have a meeting with some of the students from SLAP next week,” Hain said.“We haven’t finalized a deal with the hotel developer yet, but I know what SLAP is asking for. I’m in conversation with those students, and I will continue to be in conversation with those students.”

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