Atlanta — June 12, 2001

The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents expedited the development and approval of its five-year Major Capital Outlay Priority List today with the support of wireless technology.

Laptop computers were used by the current 15-member Board of Regents to rank the capital project requests made by seven University System of Georgia presidents seeking new construction facilities for their colleges and universities. The high technology reduced to a single day the annual review and approval process for adding new projects to the Board of Regents’ Capital Priority List - the tabulation of which previously had been conducted manually overnight.

The new list, approved today, incorporates four new building projects onto the bottom of the current list of needed major facilities. The revised list has 22 projects totaling $504 million in requested major construction projects.

The new projects added to the list are:

• Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Renovation of Herring, Lewis and Tift Halls at $9.5 million;
• Georgia Institute of Technology’s Innovative Learning Resource Center at $29 million;
• Georgia College & State University’s Renovation of Beeson Hall at $8.5 million; and
• Columbus State University’s Academic Classroom & Laboratory Building at $24 million

The capital list, updated each June by the Board of Regents, will be included in the regents’ Fiscal Year 2003 budget request. Submitted to the state’s Office of Planning and Budget in September, the request will be utilized by Gov. Roy Barnes in developing state budget recommendations for the next fiscal year, to be considered by the state legislature when it convenes for the 2002 Legislative Session.

“Cutting-edge technology is at our disposal within the University System to increase our efficiency and effectiveness,” Stephen R. Portch said. “The wireless computers allowed us to involve the regents in yet another level of the capital prioritization process, further empowering them in the decisionmaking.”

After hearing the presidents’ presentations of their institution’s top facility need, the regents individually evaluated and ranked the seven projects. The projects were weighed against their adherence to 10 guiding principles for capital facilities approved by the board in 1997 as part of the regents’ Comprehensive Planning Process. Highest priority is given to instructional facilities, followed by academic support facilities, student support buildings, then finally administrative and infrastructure needs.

The seven projects, totaling $156.5 million in state funds and $24 million in campus funds, were screened from 21 proposals submitted by USG presidents. In determining and evaluating the proposals, campus and University System Office staff also adhered to the 1997 guiding principles for facilities.

These principles call for priority to be placed on facilities that accommodate existing and future enrollment growth and required academic programs. The highest priority is given to instructional facilities, followed by academic support facilities, student support buildings, then finally administrative and infrastructure needs.

The revised Major Capital Outlay Projects List is designed to accommodate new funding requests from the University System’s campuses, replacing the dollar amount of projects funded in the Fiscal Year 2001 Supplemental and Fiscal Year 2002 Budgets. The new projects are added to the end of the existing list, at numbers 19 through 22.

During the meeting, the board also reviewed and approved several other facilities-related agenda items, including:

• A payback project proposal for a new student center at Georgia Perimeter College for $1.1 million. This represents the auxiliary enterprise portion of the project, which is the number six-ranked project on the Major Capital Priority List;
• An increase of $18.5 million in the non-state funding component for Georgia Tech’s Advanced Computing Technology Building (ranked third on the list);
• An increase in the cost and size of Georgia Southern University’s proposed library addition (ranked fourth on the list) by $7.5 million; and
• The use of a 3 percent inflation factor to be applied to existing projects on the list. This increases by $12 million the total cost for all existing projects.

From last year’s list of 24 rank-ordered projects approved by the Board in June 2000, the General Assembly funded the top six projects for construction in its Fiscal Year 2001Supplemental Budget at a cost of $91.3 million. While already funded for construction, these six projects still require $4.8 million in funding to pay for the loose equipment associated with their operation.

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