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Here are the university capital projects that Reynolds is proposing to fund [1]

['Brooklyn Draisey', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2024-01-17

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has recommended fully funding capital improvement projects at the University of Northern Iowa and a state-owned, public university-operated field station.

Reynolds’ fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, released last week, included capital improvement requests from Iowa’s public universities. Reynolds recommended providing almost $4 million to UNI’s Industrial Technology Center updates and $1.5 million to the UI for housing improvements at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory.

Here’s a look at the projects.

Upgrading UNI’s Industrial Tech Center

UNI requested $3.85 million from the state to renovate and expand its Industrial Technology Center, renamed as the Applied Engineering Building. According to the budget proposal, these state appropriations would replenish funds used in 2022 to fix structural problems with the university’s steam distribution system.

Renovations include updating 64,000 square feet of the facilities and adding 45,000 square feet in labs, offices and classroom spaces, the budget proposal stated, and are three-quarters of the way done.

According to a presentation given to the Iowa Board of Regents at its September meeting by UNI Facilities Management Assistant Vice President and Director Michael Zwanziger, the total project costs adds up to just under $44.8 million, and the $3.85 million in state dollars would fully fund it. According to regents documents, $40.5 million in state funding was provided to this project between fiscal years 2021 and 2023.

This project will bring the 50-year-old building up to today’s standards and eliminate more than $10 million in deferred maintenance.

Zwanziger said in the meeting that the building’s classrooms, labs and other collaborative spaces support the university’s material science and engineering department, as well as programs in robotics, electronics, manufacturing and more.

The budget proposal stated that the more than 500 students receiving an education in these and other related areas, as well as education students hoping to teach in STEM fields, will benefit from these updates and expansions.

New Lakeside Lab housing

The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, a 147-acre campus on West Okoboji Lake, hosts indoor and outdoor classrooms, labs, housing and dining facilities for students from each regent university to take courses and conduct research. The lab asked the state for $1.5 million in funding to go toward new housing facilities, which would help expand the number of students able to participate in programming on the campus and allow for more year-round activities.

Student housing at the lakeside lab currently includes cabins and motels. Lakeside Laboratory Director Mary Skopec said in a September Iowa Board of Regents meeting that these cabins have no heating, air conditioning or bathroom facilities, lack fire detection and suppression equipment and do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They also don’t provide enough beds for the campus’s needs, and cannot be used in the winter.

The motels, while equipped with heating, AC and restrooms, are old and not energy efficient, and are not ADA compliant. They also lack fire detection and suppression systems and are often in need of repairs, Skopec said. Combining the cabins and motels, the lab has 65 beds available in the summer, and 22 beds in the winter and spring, according to the budget proposal.

“These buildings are quite old, built in the (1940s), and we’re quite concerned about that lack of safety for the students,” Skopec said.

Funding from the state would go to replacing the motels with a 75-bed residence hall, Skopec said, which would be safer and more energy efficient without having to expand the campus’s footprint on the area. The new facilities would allow the lakeside lab to house an additional 300 or more students annually, according to the budget proposal.

Skopec said the $1.5 million would fund the design phase. The lab plans to request an additional $7.4 million in fiscal year 2026 for completion of the project.

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[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/01/17/here-are-the-university-capital-projects-that-reynolds-is-proposing-to-fund/

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