10/08/99

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Ohio University Board of Trustees approved a six-year capital improvement budget plan at their meeting Friday on the Athens campus. The capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2000-2006 is divided into three two-year periods and requires between $42.6 million and $44.2 million for each period, according to Director of Facilities Planning John Kotowski.

Highlights of the plan include:

* $23.9 million to renovate Baker Center.
* $8.7 million to complete the new $19.3 million Life Sciences building.
* $14 million to renovate and build an addition on Bentley Hall.
* $10.2 million to renovate McCracken Hall.
* $6.9 million to renovate Hudson Health Center.
* $13.8 million to renovate Seigfred Hall.
* $5.8 million to rehabilitate the President Street Academic Center.
* $10 million to renovate the Lausche Steam Plant.
* $2.2 million to renovate Brasee Hall on the Lancaster Campus.
* $2 million to complete the Technology Center on the Southern Campus.

In other action the trustees:

*Praised President Robert Glidden and university personnel for spearheading an initiative that placed personal computers and printers in all first-year students' residence hall rooms. The university plans to install computers in all residence hall rooms by fall quarter 2000.

*Agreed to contract with Rose Technology, Inc., an energy management firm, to work with the university to retrofit university energy systems. The contract is expected to save the university millions of dollars over the next decade.

*Toured the Russ College of Engineering and praised student and faculty presentations and news that the National Academy of Engineering will sponsor a biennial $500,000 prize in honor of longtime Ohio University benefactors Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ. The Russ Prize, funded through a $5.8 million Ohio University endowment from the Russes, becomes one of the top two engineering prizes in the world. The trustees expressed an interest in future tours of campus facilities and tours of other colleges.

*Toured the campus and visited current capital improvement projects and the sites of future projects with Vice President for Administration Gary North.

*Expressed concern about the issue of underage drinking in Athens and indicated the subject would be a topic of conversation with state and local officials.

*Conducted a five-year review of university centers and institutes. The trustees approved the continued operation of the Center for International Business Education and Development, the Center for Automatic Identification and the Center for Higher Education and International Programs, changing its name to the Center for Higher Education to increase its focus on educational institutions in southeast Ohio. The trustees discontinued the Center for Political Communication and the Center for Economic Education.

*Agreed to join the Ohio Learning Network, a consortium of Ohio's two- and four-year colleges that provides a clearinghouse of courses offered through distance learning technologies. The consortium provides learning options to college students who are unable to attend classes on college campuses.