PULLMAN The WSU Board of Regents approved on May 2 the university’s capital and operating budget requests, which will be considered by the 2009 Legislature. The meeting was held Friday in Pullman.
Leading the list of capital requests are $38.6 million for construction of the Applied Technology Classroom Building at WSU Vancouver, $7.4 million in design funding for a veterinary medical research building in Pullman, $15.75 million for a Pullman wastewater reclamation project and $16.1 million to turn the Bookie building in Pullman into classroom space. The Bookie will vacate its current building this summer and move to the renovated Compton Union Building, which will open this fall.
Included in the list of projects on the operating budget is $18 million to overhaul the university’s core computer systems; $5 million in funding for the School of Global Animal Health; $3 million for public safety and emergency management funding; money to fund salary increases for faculty, staff and graduate students, and funding to support higher enrollments.
The regents also approved the selection of Dr. Roger O. McClellan as the recipient of the 2008 Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. Dr. McClellan, who earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from WSU in 1960, is one of the nation’s leading experts on aerosol science and inhalation toxicology. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and has served on more than 60 major advisory committees for the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies.
McClellan will be invited to campus during fall semester to receive the award, the highest honor granted by the university to WSU alumni.
The regents approved several fee increases for the upcoming academic year. Generally, service and activities fees and health fees were raised by five percent. Allocation of the service and activities fees is decided by student-led committees on each campus. The regents also approved a 6.64 percent increase in the per semester fees for Pullman students for use of the Student Recreation Center.
In other action, the board:
* Approved the creation of a bi-state School of Food Science, in collaboration with the University of Idaho. The action merges food science faculty and programs from the WSU Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition with food science faculty and programs from the UI Department of Food Science and Toxicology.
* Approved the revenue bond resolution to fund the $26 million Olympia Avenue Student Housing project. Regents participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the project Thursday. It is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2009.
* Granted authority to the administration to select a general contractor/construction manager for the Applied Technology Classroom Building and the Washington Technology Center Semiconductor Component Testing Facility on the Vancouver campus. Total project cost for the classroom building is $42.6 million; the planned completion date is the summer of 2011, pending funding approval from the Legislature.
Approved the establishment of a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering at the WSU Vancouver campus.
