Trustees OK biennial budget requests

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue trustees on Friday (Aug. 26) approved the 2017-2019 legislative request for its line-item appropriations and also reviewed and approved Purdue's 10-year capital plan and legislative capital request for the 2017-2019 biennium.

Purdue is requesting funding for eight line items totaling $37.2 million, said Bill Sullivan, Purdue treasurer and chief financial officer. The university's operating appropriation for the upcoming biennium is determined by the state based on performance funding metrics prescribed by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Actual operating appropriations will not be known until the legislative session has been completed.

Purdue also requests $5.7 million in 2017-18 and $3.7 million in 2018-19 for the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL), which the university manages and operates for the state under the auspices of the State Board of Animal Health.

The university's legislative request will be submitted to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education in September. After review, ICHE will then make its recommendation on the request to the General Assembly for consideration during its legislative session.

The legislative capital request for fiscal years 2017-19 is for three projects at West Lafayette totaling $121 million in state funding and two regional campus projects totaling $52 million in state funding.

"Our approach to both the near-term legislative request and the 10-year plan is to renew facilities through renovation and replacement and to leverage private, public and institutional partnerships to achieve our goals," Sullivan said. "All of this is viewed through the lens of our strategic objectives, which include considerations such as the Purdue Moves, including student affordability and our Pillars of Excellence in Life Sciences, as well as the need to renovate classroom and teaching lab facilities to bring them up to modern-day standards. We always operate under the core principles of renovate when feasible, replace existing facilities when appropriate and add new space only if necessary."

Projects included in the near-term legislative capital request are:

* Agricultural and Biological Engineering Building renovation and addition at West Lafayette. The project includes demolition of the existing, southern portion of the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Building, construction of a 125,000-gross-square-foot addition and renovation of the northern portion of the facility. The projected cost is $80 million, of which $69 million in support is being requested from the state.

* Brown Laboratory of Chemistry teaching lab renovations at West Lafayette. The project would renovate 68,700 square feet of teaching laboratories, which have remained unchanged since the building's construction in 1972. The projected cost of $34 million is requested from the state.

* Bioscience Innovation Building at the Calumet campus of Purdue Northwest. The project would demolish the existing Gyte Annex and construct a new 75,400-gross-square-foot facility. The building will be home to the College of Nursing, Department of Biological Sciences and shared instructional spaces. The projected cost is $40.5 million, of which $35.1 million is being requested from the state.

* Applied Learning Building and Knoy Hall renovation at West Lafayette. The project would construct a new 69,500-gross-square-foot Applied Learning Building and renovate portions of Knoy Hall. The Applied Learning Building would be located east of the ADM Agricultural Innovation Center on South Russell Street. The combination of the new facility and renovations is projected to cost $25 million, of which $18 million is being requested from the state.

* South campus renovations at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. This will continue the renovations of Kettler Hall, Neff Hall and the Liberal Arts Building. Kettler Hall, built in the early 1960s as the first structure on the IPFW campus, will be modified to accommodate new programs and technologies. The projected cost of $17 million is requested from the state. 

Sources: Bill Sullivan, 765-494-9705, sully1976@purdue.edu

Michael B. Cline, vice president for physical facilities, 765-494-8000