Regents finalize funding priorities

Safer classrooms and space for a growing student nursing population are the top priorities for higher education leaders already looking toward the 2007 legislative session.

A $23 million classroom renovation at Weber State University will be the state Board of Regent's No. 1 building priority, followed closely by a $14.5 million request by the University of Utah for renovations and an addition to accommodate more faculty and high-tech simulation labs.

Requests by Utah State University, Salt Lake Community College and Snow College also made the top five capital building requests for the regents, who finalized their top funding priorities Friday.

"We think all of these projects are very doable this year," Utah Higher Education Commissioner Rich Kendell said. The top five requests total just over $100 million.

Several projects didn't make the top five cut-off, however, including an addition to the Utah Valley State College Health Sciences building, a science center addition at Southern Utah University, a student commons at Dixie College and a learning center at the U.

At WSU, the classroom renovation will replace two 50-year-old buildings and will also rid the older buildings of asbestos and piping problems.

"This building is about renewal," WSU President Ann Millner said. "It's time for us to use our space as efficiently as possible and make sure we're creating the university of the next 50 years."

The WSU renovation of campus buildings 1 and 2 already received $2 million from the 2006 Legislature for design, a move that puts the project in prime position to get the remaining funding, Kendell said.

A revamped building for the college of nursing at the U. is also poised to get the nod from legislators, who already backed a nursing initiative to increase the number of qualified nursing faculty.

The success of that program has brought more nursing students and graduate students to the U. to be trained as nursing instructors, but left the school with little space to accommodate new faculty.

The $22.9 million renovation will need about $14 million from state coffers to fund a 76,000-square-foot renovation and 9,600-square-foot expansion of the existing nursing building. The new structure will offer faculty offices and a state-of-the-art simulation lab.

Now, students work in outdated labs and faculty are forced to share offices or set up cubicles in open areas, said Maureen Keefe, dean of the College of Nursing.