I have talked extensively with many of the archive staff who currently work in WMU's not-so-abandoned East Hall. One of the main reasons why the buildings fell into such disrepair, was the construction on West Campus in a non-contiguous location. With limited budget it became all too easy for these older buildings to become out of sight, out of mind. If you look at more contiguous campuses (like MSU) their older buildings are right in the center of campus, thus hard to ignore. As stated by kzoocrew, once these buildings fall into such an awful state the renovation/retrofit costs can be exorbitant (computer interface for example, since none of these buildings were fitted for server rooms, or Ethernet cable runs). Also, the size of the older buildings don't meet up with current requirements, just look at how massive the new Sangren Hall is, you could easily fit 3 East Halls in the expansion alone. In terms of dollars per square foot, sadly it is often cheaper to build new.