The University of Missouri Board of Curators voted Friday to ask state lawmakers for $253 million for building needs but not before discussing whether the UM System is asking for the right amounts for the right reasons.

The biggest project is the Translational Precision Medicine Complex on the Columbia campus, a $200 million science building that is President Mun Choi’s top priority for attracting new researchers and new grants to MU. The university is seeking $150 million from lawmakers for the building and associated renovations of existing buildings.

The list also includes a project for each of the other four campuses — renovation of a chemistry and biology building at UMKC, space consolidation and infrastructure needs at UMSL and a new wing and renovations of existing space in Schrenk Hall at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

The request will now go to the Coordinating Board for Higher Education for approval and submission to Gov. Eric Greitens for consideration in the budget to be sent to lawmakers in January.

At the board’s September meeting, a new plan for setting capital priorities will be up for a vote, Curator David Steelman said. It is being developed by a working group of curators and administrators and is intended to give the curators a bigger voice in the process.

“This will be the last, I hope, capital appropriation request done in this manner by the board and even this request is not the old way of doing business,” Steelman said.

In the past, the administration of each campus identified a priority project and sent a request forward to the system offices. If lawmakers didn’t fund it, it would remain the top priority. The total cost for the projects included in the request is $357.6 million, with the university promising to raise $104.6 million.

After Steelman, who lives in Rolla, said he was disappointed that Schrenk Hall had no associated fundraising, he was asked how long it had been on the list as the top priority for the campus.

“About 20 years,” he replied.

“Obviously if it has been a priority for 20 years it is not really a priority,” Curator Jeff Layman said.

With the state short of money and the university feeling the pressure of reduced operating appropriations, curators questioned whether the list should be pared even further.

“It seems if we are going to ask for money to fund our most important projects, or enhance MU’s AAU status, it just seems a couple of these should fall off,” Curator Darryl Chatman said. “Why should we go with four when we could go with two? Why aren’t we going ahead with our two most important projects?”

The AAU, or American Association of Universities, is a body of 60 top research universities in the United States and Canada that includes 36 public universities. The most recent publicly released internal rankings showed MU near the bottom of public university members in a number of categories including competitive research grants. Two universities, the University of Nebraska and Syracuse University, lost their membership in 2011.

Choi told the board that maintaining MU’s membership is a top priority and the Translational Precision Medicine Complex is part of that effort. It will be a collaborative research space for medicine, engineering, veterinary medicine and other disciplines.

“That is critical,” Choi said. “The AAU status of Mizzou does translate into prestige for the other campuses.”

The discussions of how to fund campus building needs requires a new focus, Vice President for Finance Ryan Rapp said. In the past, the university relied on the state to provide money before moving ahead with education or general needs buildings while financing construction of residence halls, athletic facilities and other needs from borrowed and donated funds.

Now, the university is trying to figure out how to fund its educational and research building needs without waiting for state lawmakers.

“If we as curators believe these are our top projects, we will want these funded with or without the state’s support,” Curator Jamie Farmer said.

rkeller@columbiatribune.com

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