The University of Michigan has announced several plans to renovate the Michigan Union, including the elimination of the Billiards Room. In a recent post on eBay, the University’s Property Disposition department listed several Billiards Room items for auction.
The items include three vintage pool tables, with prices ranging from $840 to $3,650, and a stained-glass pool table light for $1,676.
Susan Pile, senior director of University Unions and Auxiliary Services, said the auction for the pool tables will end Wednesday and the auction for the light will end Thursday. However, she expects the University will sell more items from the room in the near future.
“We anticipate a few more lights and tables will be made available in the coming months as we determine plans for the items,” Pile wrote in a statement for the Detroit Free Press.
Proceeds from the auctions will go toward the Michigan Union student leadership scholarship.
The board’s decision to eliminate the Billiards Room has generated some criticism in the past months from students and alumni.
University alum Alan Knaus, a member of Friends of the Michigan Union, expressed his disappointment the Billiards Room would not be preserved in the remodeled Union. According to Knaus, the renovations favor students over alumni by eliminating historic elements such as the Billiards Room.
“I was not happy with (the elimination of the Billiards Room) and the alumni that were there were also not very happy about that,” Knaus said last March.
In a Statement article for The Daily, contributor Will Feuer, a Public Policy junior, explained the significance of the Billiards Room in his college life. Feuer, a member of the University’s Billiards Club declared students and communities on campus are devastated by the University’s decision to eliminate the Billiards Room.
“Though far and few in between, there is a network of individuals on campus who don’t just love billiards but love the billiards hall,” Feuer wrote. “That’s why I question the Union renovations slated to begin this April, which will not only erase the pool hall entirely but also devastate the community surrounding it.”