Funds for colleges’ buildings requested

Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2005 | 8:18 a.m.

UNLV and Community College of Southern Nevada officials plan to ask regents this week to approve $16.5 million in construction loans to help finish legislatively approved buildings.

The $16.5 million in requests includes $5 million to complete a $25 million classroom facility at CCSN's West Charleston campus and $7 million to complete the fourth floor of UNLV's Science, Engineering and Technology building.

The remaining $4.5 million is for other improvements at UNLV, including $2 million for temporary science laboratories, $1.5 million to replace the tennis courts and $1 million to complete the student services building and to construct a new main campus entrance at Harmon Avenue and Maryland Parkway.

The two requests are last resorts to finish the buildings on campuses desperate for additional classroom and research space, officials said.

But while UNLV will be paying back the loans with donor contributions, research money and capital improvement fee revenue collected from students, CCSN has no revenue stream to cover payments on its proposed loan.

The 2005 Legislature approved the $25 million classroom building but provided CCSN with only $20 million in funds, said Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers. He said system officials will find the money for the loan to cover the $5 million gap "somewhere."

Lawmakers on the Interim Finance Committee said they legally could not reduce the size of the building to save money, but have allowed the college to make some design changes to cut costs, CCSN President Richard Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he hopes those changes save enough money so that the system will not have to use the $5 million loan, proposed by Dan Klaich, system vice chancellor for legal affairs.

UNLV already is financing about half of its $25 million contribution for the $85 million science building, said Gerry Bomotti, vice president of finance and business.

Faced with rising construction costs, UNLV officials initially planned to leave the fourth floor empty until the university could raise the money to finish the laboratories, Bomotti said. But they decided that the university needed the research space too much to postpone construction and that costs would continue to rise.

The estimated $650,000 to $700,000 in additional loan payments will be covered through research grant money paid to the university to cover indirect costs such as building maintenance, Bomotti said. The university currently receives about $9 million annually from grants for indirect costs.

The science building will include research space for UNLV's graduate programs, allowing the university to bring in more grant money, said Margaret Rees, associate vice president for research and outreach.

Next on UNLV's wish list for the 2007 Legislature is a new building for undergraduate labs.

Student enrollment in biology and chemistry classes has increased more than 51 percent in the last five years, from 5,300 students in 2001 to 8,100 students this fall, according to UNLV figures. During the same period, the university's total student enrollment rose by 20 percent.

Two-thirds of the school's proposed tennis court renovations will be funded by private donations, with the rest being covered by capital improvement fees, Bomotti said.

Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at clittle@lasvegassun.com.