OSU wants millions from state for projects

$58.5 million request a first step toward years of building renovations

Construction at Ohio State University won’t be letting up for years to come if the school’s board of trustees gets its way.

The board yesterday voted to ask the state for $58.5 million in the 2007-08 capital bill to update six campus buildings.

And the board approved six more projects for which it plans to seek funding in future years.

The bulk of the capital money Ohio State wants — $47.5 million — would help pay for the $102 million renovation of the Thompson Library. In February, that project was postponed for a year, adding $3 million to its cost.

The renovation now is expected to begin in the fall of 2006 and be completed in 2009, assuming the university gets $12 million more from the state’s 2009-10 capital budget.

Also postponed but included now in Ohio State’s capital-improvements request is the $50 million renovation or replacement of Brown Hall to house the English Department, Digital Media Project, Writing Workshop and the Center for the Study of Teaching and Writing. The hall currently hosts a mix of classes and offices.

Ohio State is asking the state for $3.5 million to plan the project, then will seek $41.5 million in future years to do the work.

The third update is of Hughes Hall, which will continue to be used by the School of Music. OSU wants the state to fund $1.5 million in 2007-08 and $27.5 million in future years for the renovation.

Finally, Ohio State will ask for $6 million for the first phase of renovations for Murray, Graves and Meiling halls for use by the College of Medicine, plus an additional $6 million in the next biennium.

Bill Shkurti, senior vice president of business and finance, said the long-range capitalbudget plan, which lays out improvements for a six- to 12-year period, is an attempt to prioritize how best to spend the shrinking amount of state money universities receive.

The Columbus campus received $78 million in the 1999-2000 biennium, but $57 million the past biennium.

OSU planners considered 24 major projects submitted by the school’s deans and vice presidents in coming up with the prioritized list.

The other six projects Ohio State named as priorities are:

• The $60 million to $75 million expansion and renovation of Koffolt Lab.
• The $60 million to $75 million renovation or replacement of the Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Integrated Teaching and Research Facility.
• The second phase of the update of Murray, Graves and Meiling halls, the cost of which is to be decided.
• A new $90 million Interdisciplinary Research Building.
• The renovation or replacement of Postle Hall, which houses the College of Dentistry. It was originally proposed to cost $270 million, but administrators have asked for the project to be scaled down.
• A new, $61 million to $74 million School of Public Health building.

OSU will seek to fund these six projects with a mix of state, private and university money.

Ohio State also has several construction projects planned that don’t rely on state money, including the replacement of the Ohio Union.

At the same meeting, the trustees gave President Karen A. Holbrook a 3.5 percent raise, increasing her salary to $367,309. She also received a 25 percent bonus of $88,722.

Last year trustees gave Holbrook a 3.5 percent raise, to $354,888, plus a bonus that raised her pay to $437,000. Her contract also includes a house, a housekeeper, two cars, a driver and $100,000 a year in deferred compensation.

Trustees also passed a resolution supporting state Issue 1, which would allow Ohio to issue up to $2 billion in bonds for infrastructure, research and development. Of that, $500 million would fund the state’s Third Frontier program of business-university partnerships. Ohio State is heavily involved in the program.