UMSL has been waiting a decade for state funds to renovate its crumbling labs in the Benton-Stadler science complex. School officials learned today that they will have to wait once more.

The roller coaster ride for UMSL and Mizzou continues.

This morning, those schools learned that their cherished construction projects — $28 million for the Benton-Stadler science building at UMSL and $31 million for the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at MU — had once again put been on hold. They are part of the expenditures that Gov. Nixon announced this morning that he has put on hold to fill a state budget shortfall.

In a hastily-called conference call last week, the UM Board of Curators unanimously passed a resolution opposing the potential veto. Click here to read the resolution.

The curators did avoid the veto they were dreading, but the projects are now on hold. It’s unclear whether or not means that the projects are dead or if they have a chance of being revived anytime soon. So continues an on-again, off-again back and forth on funding for those projects.

The Benton-Stadler science buildings, it might be noted, has been the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education’s top building priority for several years. That project, along with the cancer center in Columbia, were initially slated to be funded from the $350 million transfer from MOHELA to the state. But Nixon stalled these projects earlier this year because the state loan authority ran out of money.

School officials then pushed for them to get funding from federal stimulus money. So the projects were included in H.B. 22, which passed the Legislature.

But now once again, they are in limbo.

The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday.com/thegrade.