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State’s colleges and universities seek more than $380 million for capital projects

Rep. Duane Sauke asks a question during a Feb. 5 bonding request presentation by the University of Minnesota to the House Capital Investment Division. Photo by Paul Battaglia
Rep. Duane Sauke asks a question during a Feb. 5 bonding request presentation by the University of Minnesota to the House Capital Investment Division. Photo by Paul Battaglia

Rooms at the Institute of Child Development can sometimes become so hot that researchers will watch as electrodes slide off the children they are trying to help. In other parts of the building, ceiling tiles randomly fall.

Faculty from the institute, part of the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development, testified before the House Capital Investment Division Tuesday. They were one of a series of presentations from the university, and from the Minnesota State system, outlining 2019 capital funding needs.

Members learned those needs are many, and they are growing.

Officials from the University of Minnesota told members they are seeking $232.3 million from the state to fund capital projects.

Most of that money, $200 million, would go to nearly 200 projects aimed at asset preservation across four categories – health, safety and accessibility; building systems; utility infrastructure; and energy efficiency.

Of the additional $32.3 million the university would like, $28 million is for renovations – and a 30,000-square-foot addition – to the building that’s home to the Institute of Child Development. 

Megan Gunnar, the institute’s director, said her building lacks both the space and infrastructure it needs to support what has become the No. 1 ranked childhood and adolescent psychology program in the nation.

“Our research rooms are woefully outdated and cannot accommodate the 21st century technology we need for our work,” Gunnar said.

The Minnesota State capital funding request is $150 million. The system teaches 375,000 students annually through 37 colleges and universities located in 47 communities around the state.

Brian Yolitz, associate vice chancellor for facilities, said the system has received less than 30 percent of the capital funding for asset preservation and replacement it has requested from the state since 2012.

“As a result, we’ve seen the backlog of maintenance and cost of those building systems and components that have exceeded their useful lives grow by over 40 percent,” Yolitz said. “… Admittedly, these are not very glamorous projects with amazing architectural renderings and [sketches]. But these are what our colleges and universities urgently need.”

Rep. Dean Urdahl (R-Grove City), past chair of the capital investment committee, noted that the first year of the legislative biennium usually sees a smaller bonding bill than in the second year and said Minnesota State’s $150 million request “might be half of the entire [bonding] bill” this year.

He asked what Minnesota State’s request would be next year if the $150 million request wasn’t fully met in 2019.

Yolitz said he would anticipate the need for “sustained asset preservation funding over several bienniums to get us in the shape we need to buy down the backlog and address the coming amount of funds.”

He anticipated preservation needs over the next decade, combined with the current backlog of work, would push the amount of money required above $2 billion over the next 10 years. 


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