Regents approve university’s supplemental budget request

The Washington State University Board of Regents Friday approved a supplemental budget request to the Washington Legislature, which includes a proposal to fund a $63 million Biotechnology/Life Sciences Building on the Pullman campus.

The regents took action during their regularly scheduled meeting in Seattle.

The building was not funded in the last legislative session, although WSU had listed it as its top funding priority. Under the new proposal, which must be approved by the Legislature, the building would be funded by borrowing against the interest earned by the university’s permanent accounts.

These permanent accounts hold funds generated by the university’s trust lands. It is the same funding method that was used in the past to fund the Fulmer Hall renewal and the Todd Hall addition on the Pullman campus.

“This building is important to the state and the university,” said Karl Boehmke, executive budget director for WSU. “This funding proposal allows legislators to move the project forward with no cost to the state construction account. We think they will find that attractive.”

If the funding alternative is approved, WSU could begin construction of the building by late spring of 2006.

The supplemental budget request also includes a proposal to strengthen programs designed to transfer discoveries made in university laboratories into the private sector. In the wake of rising fuel costs, the university will also ask for additional funds to assist with the heating of campus buildings this biennium.

In other action, the regents approved:

* An increase of $40,000, to $150,000 annually, in deferred compensation for WSU President V. Lane Rawlins. Rawlins also receives a salary of $315,000 and a $40,000 annual retention bonus.

* Schematic design plans for two Pullman campus construction projects, the $86 million renovation of the Compton Union Building and the $4.1 million renovation of the Washington Building, which formerly housed Pullman Regional Hospital. The Washington Building renovation is scheduled to be complete in the summer of 2006. The CUB renovation, which is budgeted at $86 million, is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2006 and conclude in the summer of 2008.

* The sale of 29 acres of agricultural land known as Fife Farm No. 3 to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians for $5.87 million.

* The renaming of the Nuclear Radiation Center facility on the Pullman campus as the Harold W. Dodgen Research Facility. Dodgen was a long-time faculty member who contributed to nuclear radiation research at WSU.The regents’ next meeting will be held Oct. 14 in Pullman.