As Nevada’s institutions of higher education tighten their belts, new brick-and-mortar projects at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada are likely to be among the casualties. Members of the Nevada Board of Regents Budget and Finance Committee met last week to hear presentations from the schools about their future capital improvement projects. By August the board will finalize its budget recommendations and submit them to Carson City.
For its part, CSN’s 2009 Capital Project Budget Request includes five items with a combined price tag of $138 million. At the top of the priority list is a remodel and fire-safety retrofit of the college’s Cheyenne campus, a gray and drab fortress built in 1974. The campus’ library, student services and student commons areas are being used beyond their maximum capacity, and the fire-safety system needs to be completely overhauled before it becomes obsolete. Another $6.5 million is needed at Cheyenne to renovate science labs, which have also reached capacity.
Another big-ticket project at CSN is a $52.5 million, 100,000-square-foot student access and classroom building at the West Charleston campus. (Another $6.3 million will go to infrastructure improvements.) In Henderson, meanwhile, the college has plans for a sleek new home for the school’s Law Enforcement Training Academy. Cost: $41.6 million.
At UNLV, projects under way, such as a student services addition and new buildings for science and engineering and journalism, will continue apace. Other projects are less certain, however, including $25 million in state funds to match a gift made last fall from Harrah’s Foundation for its INNovation Village hotel and research complex.
“All of our institutions are filled with very competitive, intelligent individuals who want to do a great job for their students and want recognition,” says Regent Bret Whipple. “It’s only normal to want new departments and new buildings.” Still, he adds, “At the end of the day it’s more important to get students in the buildings we have.”
“We know that all of them will not make it through,” says Patty Charlton Dayar, CSN’s vice president of finance. But she thinks the Cheyenne fire-safety overhaul has a good chance. “Anything that has a life-safety component attached to it is very important to the board.”