Over the next four years, Ohio University plans to spend $742 million improving and maintaining the Athens campus — with more than half of the money coming from new debt.
While much of the money comes from different sources, over $383 million is projected to come from debts the university will incur over the next four years, according to the capital improvement plan.
The two biggest single projects, the replacement of the Lausche Heating Plant and the creation of a new science laboratory adjacent to Clippinger Laboratories, cost a combined $145 million.
These numbers pale in comparison to total numbers for the 20-year plan, however, for which the university is set to spend over $2.5 billion, $1.365 billion from debt, by 2032 to reduce the maintenance backlog and modernize much of campus.
Construction on the new heating plant is set to begin in the next two years, while the building of the new labs near Clippinger is slated to begin in the 2015-2016 fiscal cycle.
The new heating plant will take OU from being primarily reliant on coal to being reliant on gas, said Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for facilities, adding that the plant, which currently has a price tag of $100 million, will most likely be built with both public and private money.
“(It’s) unlikely we would (build the plant) on our own because of that big price tag,” Wyatt said. “It would involve debt but I doubt it would actually have an impact on tuition.”
The new plant would take four to five years to complete, Wyatt added.
The building of the plant is currently listed as a cost under the “Public/Private” section of the plan, which Wyatt described as money that comes from leases or investment with private companies, but the money to replace the plant is not currently on-hand.
The other major upcoming project, the Clippinger Labs expansion, is seen by administrators as one of the most pressing needs on campus.
“This is a big problem. As big a problem as the Lausche heating plant, and it stems from the problem that our main science building, Clippinger, is 45 years old,” Wyatt said. “This proposal for a new science building will help us get a leg up on renovating Clippinger.” Wyatt added.
The university has put $5 million into maintaining Clippinger in the last five years, Wyatt said, while making it clear that building a new science building, at 80,000 square feet, would allow the university to move the most intensive teaching and research functions to the new building while renovating Clippinger.
The building would be built where the main Clippinger parking lot is currently located, between the north side of the building and the Edwards Accelerator Laboratory, according to the plan.
The plan is not absolute, however, and is being revisited every year by the trustees and the administration, Wyatt said, adding that debt should be seen as a financial tool and a cycle, a tool that can avoid fee increases and tuition hikes.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
