Ellen NelsonNews Editor

Academic buildings are worthy of approval, while plans for athletic facilities, residence halls or dining services are tabled.

The Board of Regents approved two building plan and expansion proposals and postponed three others at their Oct. 14 meeting in Rapid City.

Dean Kattelmann, assistant vice president of facilities and services, presented SDSU’s proposed plans for approval. Projects included an aviation education, laboratory and hangar facility; an indoor practice facility and human performance facility; a bioscience research laboratory; a new football stadium and a residence hall construction and dining services expansion.

Only the aviation education, laboratory and hangar facility along with the bioscience research laboratory were approved by the BOR. The other three were tabled.

“It would have been nice to have gotten them approved,” Kattelmann said.

Tabling these three projects may produce delays on the projected time line for them; though they still remain part of the 2025 plan for campus.

“I don’t think they’re dead,” Kattelmann said. “They’re just delayed.”

Janelle Toman, director of BOR communications, said there is an important difference between the two types of building plans and agendas that were presented and discussed at the meeting.

“First of which is a facility program plan, which entails a project that has necessary funds ready, design plans set and ready for action along with a staffed architect. The other type of building plans that were presented to be approved are characterized as preliminary facility statements,” Toman said.

The preliminary facility statements are very young in terms of planning stages and do not necessarily even have an estimated price corresponded to it. Toman said that the only facility program plans that were approved by the BOR were two plans of Northern University in Aberdeen. All five of SDSU’s building proposals were considered preliminary facility statements, she said.

The approved buildings plans will now be able to undergo more specified planning and set a budget for the projects.

Tabling not only may have postponed the project’s timeline, it also raised the questions and viewpoints of priorities for SDSU, said SDSU Students’ Association President Brett Monson.

From the student organization standpoint, Monson said he would have liked the residential hall project to have been approved at the meeting. Though from other points of view, Monson said the need for more residence halls on campus may not be necessary at this time due to the possibility that enrollment numbers may decrease.

“The increase of enrollment (of incoming freshman) has only increased in the past ten years, and so it’s only natural for us to expect a continuation of increased enrollment numbers,” Monson said. “We have students shoved in day rooms and we are already over max capacity and more space is definitely needed.”

Toman said the reason for tabling three of the five presented projects came from the BOR’s focus on its current priorities; such as approving academic facilities before residence halls, dining facilities or athletic buildings.

Monson will attend the next BOR meeting in December to hear the BOR’s decisions on the projects; however, it’s not mandatory for the BOR to discuss the projects at the next meeting.

Toman said she does not expect to see any advances of the projects during the BOR’s next meeting in December.

“I wouldn’t count on it…” she said.

“Tabling the projects was an action done by the BOR committee action and reflects no sense of judgment or value towards the projects,” Toman said. “Tabled projects are to be readdressed at a later date and will become a part of the system wide 10-year system-wide plan of construction of all BOR universities and institutions.”

After the meeting, Monson said he had the opportunity to discuss the events of the meeting with BOR president, Terry Baloun. The total possible amount that the projects would add up to would not have looked to be a responsible expense on SDSU’s part according to Baloun.

Depending on how legislature goes and how the state budget issues result, a more suitable time will then be determined to readdress SDSU’s building proposals, Toman said.

More information regarding the BOR meeting can be found at www.sdbor.edu.

#1.1717667:2550246019.png:Airplane-1-Ryan-Robinson.png:Though the BOR tabled plans three proposals, a bioscience and research laboratory in the northwest expansion along with an aviation education, laboratory and hangar were both approved. The current hangar facility is located near the west side of downtown Brookings.:Collegian Photo by Ryan Robinson