The Board of Regents approved a 500-bed housing project and an addition to the east side of the Fain Fine Arts Center to house the Mass Communication Department. The board approved a maximum bonding of the project at $38.25 million, $5 million of which will fund the mass communication building. Construction on the project is set to begin after spring classes end in May 2015.
During the board meeting, University President Jesse Rogers explained why the mass communication expansion is included on the same project as the residence hall.
“I think it’s economical, I think the recommendation that we’re going to make on how we fund that is very innovative, workable and responsible,” Rogers said. “We want to do it with the building of the new dormitory because we have architects in place working in that area, and basically, it would be economical to use those architects to complete that project.”
Rogers said the Campus Watch studio was built in the ‘80s, making it out of date and the equipment inadequate.
“We see a chance to make a big step in this area and we ask for your support,” Rogers said to the board. “We’d like to expand the fine arts building to build a new TV2 studio, press rooms, classrooms and so forth.”
The $5 million for the mass communication project will be funded by the Redwine Quasi-Endowment Fund after it is reinvested into the Texas A&M system. Marilyn Fowlé, vice president of business affairs and finance, said it was the most straightforward way to pay off the bond for the project and it won’t take money away from the honors program.
“I’ve looked at lots of different scenarios in order to pay for mass comm. and what’s the best for the university, but the A&M returns were pretty solid. I know there’s a lot of discomfort with people when doing some creative financing, so this just made the most sense,” Fowlé said. “The returns are pretty solid. This is just the most straightforward and clean and neat way. We’ll hold onto our $12 million and it’ll grow and everybody will get what they want.”
Keith Lamb, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said the estimated cost for living in the new residence hall is $2,400 per semester, but the Board of Regents won’t approve the final amount until the February meeting.
“This will be the premium residence hall on campus, so we believe, cost-wise, it will be positioned at or above what it will cost to live in McCullough-Trigg, but less than what it costs to live in Sundance and Sunwatcher,” Lamb said.
Lamb said the new residence hall is needed to meet the demands of a growing residential population.
“A year ago we were at 102 percent occupancy in housing. This fall, we began the semester at 113 percent occupancy in housing, and that includes off-campus housing that we subcontracted to place students in. So we’ve had tremendous growth over the last two years in particular in university housing.”
