Below is a transcript of our conversation with Tim Otteman, chair of CMU’s Department of Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services Administration
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas, and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. As a Mount Pleasant native, Tim Otteman grew up with CMU in his extended backyard. He is a three-time graduate, longtime faculty and now chair of CMU's Department of Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services Administration. Looking ahead, he will be leaving a legacy for his alma mater in a special part of his hometown campus…
Tim Otteman:
The space became near and dear to my heart as somewhere where I've spent my whole life, and now my office overlooks that space. And so, watching all the activity that continues, the thought in the back of my head was the last thing that I want is for them to pave paradise and put up a parking lot. And so, using that voice in my head, how do I how do I make a difference as I leave CMU but also try to maintain some semblance of that life that I really enjoyed 60 years ago? So, others can continue to enjoy it.
DN:
And in the time when they stopped playing football there and then eventually the baseball stadium was moved as well. What about the evolution of this now space that you have?
TO:
It's been an interesting transformation from the change of the football stadium moving in the early 1970s to Perry Shorts Stadium. Which is now Kelly Shorts Stadium. The baseball facility named Theunissen Stadium in the late 1980s, moved in 2002. For a while it became literally a construction site as they built the College of Health Professions just to the east. But as you look at master plans that were issued in the last you know the 90s and the 2000s, it was always going to be a green corridor leading from the North End of campus to the South end of campus. Now looking at what we call Central Ave. that kind of that main step from the library to where we now see McGurk Arena, there's enough green corridor in there that's been maintained. And so again, we were talking a little bit earlier, where people are out there with their dogs walking them or having a picnic or playing disc golf, or we use it as a classroom space as we teach fly fishing. The drone class, they're flying drones out there to learn it, where they have that space. We've landed a Black Hawk helicopter there when we had a general visit, ROTC. So, there's lots of things that are active in that space that I want the university and the Mount Pleasant community to continue to enjoy. We have one of the most beautiful campuses. But it's beautiful because of the flowers and the green space and the combination of old and new buildings. And so, trying to put a little bit of a stamp on that to hopefully maintain that for years to come.
DN:
Your gift to the university is also setting up the Recreation, Parks and Leisure Chairperson Discretionary Fund. What can you tell me about the vision for what you hope that that will be?
TO:
I guess as I started to talk to Jennifer Cotter and the Advancement team about kind of what I was thinking about doing or wanting to do the concept of blended gift came out. And so, using money that I've donated already in my time as a CMU faculty member to giving money over the next 5 or 6 years prior to retirement, but then giving some as part of my trust was a way to get to a number where you then have a naming opportunity. But what was important to me is part of that gift out of my trust. It's a $50,000 endowment that will then spin off money as we'll start to build that over the next 5 or 6 years with donations I will make. But that spin-off dollar really is set up for the department chair to be able to do something for their faculty or staff where they don't have to ask additional permission, that a department chair will be able to use that to allow somebody to go to a conference or a student to buy a new piece of equipment that we need or we've had some kind of tragedy in our store room and lost a bunch of supplies that we can replace those not out of base budget funding, but funding that comes from this endowment. So, the blended gift got us to the number that allowed us to name the space. But the impetus of my real gift was this $50,000 endowment from my trust to make sure that our department was still going to remain financially viable and be allowed to make some decisions that were in the best interest of the department.
DN:
Congratulations to you, Tim, on the naming, the establishment of the fund, and it is truly a (a) legacy that you're going to be leaving for the university, and we appreciate the time.
TO:
I appreciate the time to come in and chat, and again I think I'm getting probably way too much credit as Tim Otteman. It is the Ottoman Memorial Green Space from my daughter to nephews and nieces and brothers and sisters and relatives seeing me, who's been home for our family for a long time and (and) again, I think this allows us to put a little flag in the ground. Say I've been trained here. I've had an opportunity to teach here. CMU has giving me my career. We all should give back.
