In preparation for the 2016 legislative session, the Utah State Board of Regents prioritized the state-funded capital facilities requests from institutions in the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) during the Board of Regents meeting at Utah State University on Friday, September 18.
Each year, the Regents re-evaluate the capital facilities needs of USHE institutions. This prioritization is conducted after an extensive evaluation process including project site visits by the Capital Facilities Committee, space inventories, and various scoring methods. This year was full of necessary and impactful projects systemwide, as shown by the scoring rubric.
“Each institution faces tremendous challenges in meeting its capacity needs. We are seeing the impact of a decade of significant student growth while trying to plan for another 10 years of similar growth,” observed Dan Campbell, Chair of the Board of Regents. “These Budget Priorities and building projects are a critical component to keeping pace with the rapidly growing workforce needs in Utah.”
The Regents prioritized the following requests:
1.) Salt Lake Community College Career and Technical Education Center at Westpointe
2.) Utah Valley University Performing Arts Building
3.) Weber State University Social Sciences Building
4.) Southern Utah University Business Building
5.) University of Utah Medical Education and Discovery(MED)/Rehabilitation Hospital
6.) (*TIE*) Utah State University Biological Sciences Building and Dixie State University Human Performance/Student Wellness Center
Next steps
The capital development priorities of the Board of Regents will be considered by the State Building Board on October 7-8 along with all other requests for state funded capital development projects. Those prioritized projects will ultimately be prioritized for funding by the Utah Legislature during the 2016 legislative session.
