They came through yesterday with a single, $350 million wish list of construction projects for consideration in the next two-year capital budget.
“We’ve come up with projects I think will renew principles of higher education, will allow us to be very productive, and certainly allow us to work in the interest of 11.6 million Ohioans,” said Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, who led the process.
The list includes recommendations for $350 million in capital projects for individual campuses over the next two years, plus $50 million for “projects of statewide benefit” such as a $19 million student center at Central State University in Wilberforce. The school is the state’s only public historically black university.
Kasich called the proposal “unprecedented.”
“They’re coming without a formula, they’ve all worked together. We’re at the beginning of creating a university system,” Kasich told The Dispatch.
To come up with the list, Gee established a seven-member commission that included four college and university presidents and the leaders of Ohio’s two public higher-education associations.
Together, they developed recommendations based on four priorities of the Kasich administration:
• $207.9 million would go to renovations of building and long-term maintenance projects. Officials concede that the money would merely make a dent in the ever-growing list of projects in need of funding. Before the current capital budget was zeroed out, Ohio’s colleges and universities already faced a $5 billion backlog in deferred maintenance.
• $30.4 million for work-force development plans at six schools, none of them local. For instance, Zane State College in Zanesville would receive $6 million for a center in Cambridge to train workers in the high-demand fields of energy and science and technology.
• Nearly $14.8 million for partnerships that would collectively include an additional $80.9 m illion in investments from local governments or private organizations. About $12 million would allow Wright State University in Dayton to expand a neuroscience program with Premier Health Partners, the largest hospital system in the region.
Of all the schools, Ohio State would receive the most money ($82 million), followed by the University of Cincinnati at $31.8 million. About a third of the total would come to campuses in central and southeastern Ohio, including nearly $22.5 million to Ohio University and $5 million to Columbus State Community College.
“We’re pleased to get anything in this economic situation,” Columbus State President David Harrison said.
The group recommended that the state contribute $5 million toward a $15.2 million renovation of Union Hall, which houses Columbus State laboratories used in nursing, respiratory care, early-childhood development and anatomy instruction. The school once wanted $8 million, but Harrison said: “We recognize these are real unusual times.”
The state’s most-recent capital budget, which covered fiscal years 2009 and 2010, included $392.6 million for higher education, excluding community projects. Kasich has ruled out including community projects in this capital budget.
Tim Keen, Kasich’s budget director, left room for the Kasich administration to tweak the Gee committee’s proposal, but he said he’s “very pleased with this report.”
The commission also is recommending other ways to reduce the costs of capital projects. Ideas include allowing schools to work together to bid certain construction projects across campuses and to join other state agencies in buying construction materials.