UMass trustees OK $546M for building construction; new housing in Amherst
1
AMHERST - The building boom at the University of Massachusetts for the last several years is slated to continue, now that the university's Board of Trustees has approved a borrowing plan that will finance $546 million in construction projects for all five campuses.
On tap for Amherst: $182 million for new on-campus student housing, and $21.7 million for housing renovations.
Other highlights of the project include $100 million for a new academic building for UMass-Boston and $25 million for a marine science building on the UMass-Dartmouth campus.
In Amherst, UMass officials are considering plans for a new 1,500-bed housing unit, the location still to be determined. They are also looking at converting space in some existing buildings, such as Goessmann Hall and the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, for additional student housing. The school has a long-range plan to increase undergraduate enrollment by about 15 percent over the next 10 years, to approximately 22,500 students.
The new projects in Amherst and elsewhere in the system will be financed by a bond offering that the UMass Building Authority plans to move forward next month. The university, drawing on various revenue sources, pays the debt service on the bonds.
It's not yet clear when construction of the new student housing complex at UMass-Amherst will begin, said campus spokesman Ed Blaguszewski. But under the projected time line, he noted, the new housing would open in time to accommodate students in fall 2013.
Robert Connolly, a spokesman for the office of UMass President Jack Wilson in Boston, said the hope is to have "shovels in the ground" for the Amherst dormitory and other projects within a year or less.
UMass officials said current low interest rates make this a good time to build, and that the projects will provide both short- and long-term economic benefits.
"At a time when the economy is still recovering, our projects bolster the construction industry and create jobs all across the state," Trustee James J. Karam said in a statement. "And because we're building academic and research facilities, these projects provide a permanent economic dividend for a state that relies on innovation and brainpower."
The new projects come on the heels of the largest building program in the university's history, which has seen UMass spend $2 billion on construction and renovation projects over the past decade, including the $114.5 million Integrated Sciences Building that opened on the Amherst campus last year. The projects were financed by UMass (85 percent) and the state (15 percent).
Capital plan also gets OK
The Board of Trustees' Committee on Administration and Finance this week also approved a new five-year, $2.5 billion capital plan for the UMass system that would address additional long-range needs such as roadway and other infrastructure improvements, new teaching facilities and equipment, and renovations to student housing.
The financial boost comes a week after the university got a pat on the back when The Times of London newspaper ranked UMass one of the world's top universities in its annual World University Rankings. The paper rated the UMass system 56th out of 200 universities around the globe, and it was the only public university from New England to make the list.
The newspaper also ranked UMass the fourth best school in Massachusetts - behind Harvard, MIT, and Tufts University - and the 14th best public university system in the United States. The ratings were based on a review of several categories, including quality of teaching, volume and influence of research, the "international mix" of staff and students, and industry income and innovation.
"The University of Massachusetts is a truly great university, and we are delighted to be recognized in such dramatic fashion," Wilson said in a statement. "This ranking is a testament to the hard work of our outstanding faculty and to the efforts of students who come to us with impressive credentials and talents and graduate prepared to change the world."
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
Comments
bad idea
Indeed it would seem to me like a bad idea to have drunken college students wreaking havoc in the library or Goessman hall every weekend. Perhaps this is not a proofreading matter though, but a matter of idiocy at UMass.
student housing in the library???
Do you really think they are going to put student housing in the library?? Or in Goessmann either for that matter? Hmm.... I think someone should proofread your article! LOL! That really doesn't sound right. :-)