MSU Board of Regents members – for more than an hour – scrutinized a master construction plan proposed by administrators last week.

Ultimately, the Board agreed to OK the “concept” of the plan, but with some reservations. None of the Regents saw eye-to-eye with administrators about specific projects.

Architects from Harper Perkins, who helped create the 5-year master plan, explained it to Regents Thursday afternoon. The plan included renovations to Christ Academy, tearing down McGaha and Vinson, building a new police station and adding more parking spots.

“What we try to do is go through everything with the administration and staff to see their needs and how these things are going to be funded,” one architect said.

One of the main points of contention between Regents and administrators was how far down on the priority list adding new on-campus parking was. As outlined by architects, the Christ Academy renovations take top priority. Second is the clearing of old buildings and third is constructing a new police station. Adding new parking and a new residence hall placed near the bottom of the list.

“I appreciate the plan, but I’m a little bothered,” said Regent Dr. Lynnwood Givens.

One of the major problems with MSU, according to students, he said, is parking.

“Yet that’s in year three or four as a master plan. I’m not very comfortable with that part of it. Let’s see parking in year one somewhere.”

The current plan will add 148 additional commuter spaces. About 295 residential spots will be made.

The spaces would mainly be contained in the northwest corner of campus, where the Biology House and police station now stand.

“I think a really top-notch architecture firm could see a way to get the parking earlier on,” Givens said half-jokingly.

Provost Dr. Alisa White defended the Christ Academy project’s top spot on the master list.

“One of the reasons Christ Academy is so important to the academic side is we are making curricular changes that will necessitate realignment of space in mass comm.,” she said. “They are changing the curriculum to have a converged media curriculum as opposed to print and broadcasting.”

Regent Michael Bernhardt then addressed his concerns about how far down the list the new residence hall was.

“I guess I have, kind of like Dr. Givens, concerns. Maybe we should consider accelerating that up a little bit because that would help our growth,” Bernhardt said.

Givens proposed that the new dorm and parking both be placed above Christ Academy.

Dr. Keith Lamb, vice president of enrollment management and student affairs, said present housing demand isn’t high enough.

“We’re talking about 400 to 450 beds,” Lamb said. “Based on the models that we’ve run, we just don’t have that kind of demand.”

He said the university may want to reevaluate demand for housing.

Regent Jane Spears also questioned the low priority of the new residence hall.

Planning, design and construction of the dorm is set for the fourth year of the master plan. It would be functional by the fifth or sixth year, according to the architects.

“This timing bothers me,” MSU President Dr. Jesse Rogers admitted. “My hope is that it can all be pushed together earlier than this. We can’t wait that long. We probably won’t have to.”

He mentioned that opportunities to complete the project more quickly may present themselves, but did not elaborate.

“I don’t mean to tease or anything, and I think it’s premature for us to talk about some of the new ideas we have about housing that we desperately need.”

Rogers also said that some of the projects could be completed simultaneously.

“We could be working on the engineering building while we’re working on the dormitory. The thing is, on a campus, we can just be doing so much at any one time.”

Another project listed in the master plan was to turn certain roadways – specifically the one separating McCullough-Trigg and Clark – into “green spaces,” or grassy areas.

Regent Sam Sanchez voiced concern about how this would affect traffic patterns. Conversely, he drew issue with another part of the plan that would create large parking lots in already existing green space.

“It seems like we’re cutting out a lot of the green space on campus, which is part of the charm of the university,” Sanchez said. “So how do we compensate for that?”

Rogers proposed a solution: to build a parking garage.

“Sam, I think we’re going to have to deal with, just like every other university has, whether or not we want to build a parking garage,” Rogers said.

Lamb argued that the proposed plan didn’t eliminate much green space at all. Most of the space adjoins buildings or already existing lots.

“We’re actually creating more usable green space than we have right now,” he said.

Regent Charles Engelmann attacked the plan for a different reason. He didn’t think enough money was set aside for maintenance of new projects.

“If you’re going to build a building that costs $1 million, you’d better have $1 million invested to cover the maintenance,” Engelmann said. “We’re talking about spending $38 million. We need a 5 percent annual growth in our enrollment to cover that.”

Juan Sandoval, vice president of business affairs and finance, argued that eliminating the Vinson building, the police station and other old buildings would free up money already used for maintenance.

“So by razing those buildings, when we build these other facilities, it’s going to help us in deferred maintenance. It’s going to save us some money in the long run,” he said.

“I think Charlie (Engelmann) is on to something here,” Regent Sean Hessing said. “I would ask that as we develop this plan, we discuss this issue that he has brought up. It’s something you can’t ignore.”

Funding for big projects will be paid for with private gifts and on-hand Higher Education Assistance Funds (HEAF), Rogers said. Housing income will be used in 2017.

Other projects not largely discussed by the Board were renovations for the Dalquest Research Center, Akin Auditorium, the Writing Center and the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU. The projects are to be financed with private gifts and maintenance funds.

A $2.5 million gift given to the university last week by several donors will kick-start the plan, said Rogers. The money will be used to pay off the remaining debt incurred by the Dillard building.

Last semester, Kay Dillard gave about $2 million to the university and challenged administrators to match the donation.

That’s exactly what happened.

Some of the gifts, Rogers said, will be given over a period of several years.