Dear campus community,

In June 2025, the Oakland University Board of Trustees approved the initial stages of developing a plan for a data center on Parking Lot 35. This lot is located behind Hillcrest Residence Hall and near the Native American Heritage Site, biological preserve, and the nature trail.

Data centers are notorious for their detrimental impact on the local environment. Data centers that are under 30MW and utilising a closed-loop system, like the one proposed, would use water and chemicals that would need to be changed routinely; beyond the possibility of pollution, high usage of the municipal water supply will impact the services provided for the rest of the area. Sound pollution is also a factor as it can affect the surrounding animal life, making it harder for our campus' natural systems to function, and residents of the nearby Hillcrest Hall dorms could suffer long-term health effects. High energy uses can be a major problem, as energy creation causes high CO2 emissions, which actively accelerates the effects of climate change. The usage of up to 26MW of electricity will cause electricity prices in Oakland County to increase at a time where consumer costs are already high and rising.

Data centers actively harm our campus community and the amenities available to OU students. Our trails and biological preserves will become less accessible to students with disabilities, as P35 remains the most accessible lot for the trail system. Very few jobs will be created for OU students, as data centers create around 50-80 jobs, with an unclear number of positions promised for OU students.

A data center was not explicitly approved in the Campus Master Plan, does not align with said plan’s pillar of sustainability, and the administration has not sought input from the campus community and the greater Oakland County area. As of now, there are no clear mechanisms for accountability to ensure that the data center proposal is carried out according to campus needs. Students, faculty, and the local community have not been made aware of this data center at all by the administration; outreach has so far been nonexistent, other than that done by individual students and on-campus organizations.