Updates to improvements around campus

[WIU0812]

Just heard on the News that the proposed new Student Union at UIS has been put on "hold".

UIS has all of the designs done, and construction was set to begin.
http://www.uis.edu/studentunion/

I do not see where this was ever put out for bid so maybe it was not as far along as thought? Just because the designs were done does not mean that the money was already there for bid.

[ST_Lawson]

I don't know...I still feel like until I actually see construction equipment clearing the land for it, there's still a chance it won't happen. I mean, I know the money is already set aside for it, but still....I just feel like it could all just fall through (or maybe that's just the Cubs/Bears/Leathernecks fan in me).

[wiu712]

According to the Springfield newspaper (The State Journal-Register), the delay in plans for the UIS Student Union is being blamed on the State's budget crisis.

UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved the concept several months ago, and the university has been working on the design for two years. Groundbreaking was tentatively scheduled for this May, and it was hoped the building could open sometime in 2016.

But the ongoing budget crisis in higher education is causing UIS to take a step back from its original timetable.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s current budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins July 1 calls for a 31.5 percent across-the-board cut in higher-education funding.

“That has caused us all to be much more cautious, especially where new construction is concerned,” Koch said. “We’ve been asked by the university administration to alter our original timetable and postpone the groundbreaking to a later time.”

She said she’s hoping now for a fall groundbreaking, assuming finances are more settled. That would allow for the building to open in spring or summer of 2017.

Student fees and private donations will pay the bulk of the $21.75 million cost for the building, which will be on the south end of the UIS Quad, north of the soccer fields.

Koch said student fees won't increase until the building opens.

She said well over $3 million in private donations have been pledged, with a goal of $8 million.

UIS will go back to the Board of Trustees for final approval, likely in July or September. After that, construction bids will be sought.

The Student Union will have three stories, although the second story is a mezzanine level, and be of slightly more than 50,000 square feet.

The Macomb and Western community will remember that Susan Koch (UIS Chancellor) was one of the 5 finalists for President at Western. That job went to Jack Thomas.

[Tere North]

Now that the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled the state can't renege on pensions, the legislature is going to have to find a way to resolve the financial crisis. We are one of the few states that hasn't recovered from the recession, with financial mismanagement to blame. While I know it impacts the Performing Arts Center, what makes sense to me is to pass legislation that allows the state to use Capitol Development Board funds to resolve the budget crisis. The explanation that it is a different money pool is not realistic, it is still state money, no different that how they state ignored paying its share into the pension fund year after year.

[vatusay]

The infrastructure in downstate Illinois is a joke.

More money should be put into the CD not more robbed from it IMO.

[WIU0812]

Vatusay is right robing the money from the funds that put it back into the peoples pocket could stagnate the economy even more by creating much fewer jobs and less spendable income for workers.

[Tere North]

How much income do you really think a $75M Performing Arts Center is going to put into the worker's pocketbooks? And do you really see the PAC as infrastructure. Sure, I see it as something good for Macomb, but not a $75M value in this economy. Multiply it with all the other Capitol Development projects and I imagine they it would total a mighty hefty sum. With Illinois debts paid off we can gain back our bond ratings and have a stable economy to move forward from, not an economy that falls farther down the drain day by day, year by year. The CD money is money that hasn't been spend yet, whereas other solutions, like the 30% cut in education funding, take money away from existing infrastructure. Wow, a PAC is gonna look rather lost if there is no WIU around it, with Macomb becoming another Colchester.

[vatusay]

To a guy or gal working on a big project like that it produces a check every week (depending on trade and OT Id guess $1k-$2500 a week take home money.) to provide for their family. So a worker benefits quite a bit from it. I would a assume, also, that a project of that size will have plenty of overtime hours leading to more taxes paid and disposable income boosting the local economy. No they won't make millions, but yea they will bank thousands.

If wiu is worried about sustaining itself, there is plenty of waste on campus.

I consider any building, road, or utility infrastructure.

[WIU0812]

I would say 25 to 30 percent of that money goes to labor which is a ton of money going to blue collar jobs.

[vatusay]

Yep and most likely LOCAL members of the blue collar work force that will spend the money right here in the community.