PULLMAN The WSU Board of Regents advanced a future construction project for WSU Spokane and an academic program for WSU Vancouver at its regularly scheduled meeting held Friday on the Pullman campus.
The board authorized the administration to select a consultant for the construction of Phase 1 of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Building on the Riverpoint campus in Spokane. The site selected for the building is immediately east of the Nursing Building, which was dedicated last spring.
The first phase, budgeted at a total project cost of $44.9 million, would include clinical laboratory space, research and classroom space and administrative offices to expand the existing health sciences collaboration between WSU, the University of Washington and Eastern Washington University. The university plans to seek funding for the construction during the 2011 legislative session.
The board also approved extending the master of accounting degree program to WSU Vancouver. The accounting program on the campus has seen growing enrollment and officials believe that extending the program will fill a void in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region.
In other action, the board authorized a refinancing of the bonds the university issued to fund construction of the Student Recreation Center on the Pullman campus in 1998. By refinancing to take advantage of lower interest rates, the university hopes to achieve an annual savings of about $140,000 over the course of the bond issue.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 9 on the WSU Spokane campus.
