EPHRAIM — A number of college and university building projects were presented to the Board of Regents for preliminary consideration Friday during a meeting at Snow College.

Among those projects are a building to replace the University of Utah's old School of Business, a new agriculture building at Utah State University and a technology center at Salt Lake Community College. Each of the nine public institutions was encouraged to submit building priorities to the board. A list of priorities will eventually be forwarded to the Legislature.

"We try to keep a good balance between providing new space and renovating old space on our campuses," said Mark L. Spencer, associate commissioner of finance for the Utah System of Higher Education. He said there are valid points for both types of projects.

"It really depends on each individual campus and how old it is," he said. For example, because the U.'s campus is older, many of its project proposals have to do with renovation and remodelling, but with Utah Valley State College's campus being fairly new, "new buildings are the only way to go," Spencer said.

For this fiscal year, which began July 1, legislators allocated $2.5 million to be used for planning such projects, which was to be matched by the federal government. Recently, however, the federal government surpassed its promise by appropriating nearly $8 million for planning and construction, which is "very welcome," regents agreed.

Last year, the Legislature approved funding for four of at least 10 capital projects, which all hit near the $2 million mark, requested by the board. The money went to build a new classroom building and a chiller plant at Weber State University, a new library and classroom building for Snow College, a College of Nursing building at the U., and toward planning a new agriculture building at USU.

"Last year was what we consider a good year, where we had three building and one planning request funded," Spencer said. "If we can work on getting three to four projects funded, it will definitely be another good year."

Cost figures for the proposed building projects were not readily available as schools are waiting for input from the State Building Board and the Division of Facilities Construction and Management.

Also discussed in the board's Finance Committee was the option of land banking in order to provide land for future projects at Utah's higher education institutions.

The option is considered an important way to prepare and provide for the potential and inevitable growth at Utah's college and university campuses. Regents again agreed that it is a "legislative priority," Finance Committee Chairman Nolan E. Karras said.

"We need to be thinking in terms of where we're growing institutionally, both current and future prospects," he said.

Regents hurried regularly scheduled meetings along as a nearby wildfire was closing major highways and cutting power to some places in the valley. Many wanted to leave in a timely manner in order to avoid traffic that was rerouted due to road closures.

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