On Monday, the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education approved a prioritized list of capital projects at the state’s four-year and two-year public colleges and universities. This is the first time in several years that the coordinating board has ranked capital projects. It hasn’t done so recently because there hasn’t been much state money available for such projects.

So why make a priority list now? The Missouri General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Capital Improvements and Leasing asked the board (and apparently all other state agencies) at the end of the session to do so. Paul Wagner, deputy commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education, said that he’s not sure what the committee plans to do with the information, whether for example it might be used to figure out what projects to fund out of the proposed state bond issue that Gov. Nixon and others are contemplating.

“I don’t really know what their game plan is right now,” Wagner said.

The board only ranked the single top priority of each institution. And the board did not include the 13 MOHELA-related projects still waiting to be funded (i.e. UMSL’s Benton-Stadler science building, MU’s Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, a business incubator at SEMO, etc.) In its recommendation, the board said that those projects should remain the top priorities for any available funding for higher education.

Numero uno on the new prioritized list was $2 million for a new $4.8 million Hannibal Area Education Center for Moberly Area Community College. Wagner said that the school had been leasing a site in Hannibal for classes, but have had troubles with a landlord. So now the college is in dire need of finding a place to hold classes. He added that the Hannibal-area community has raised more than half of the funds needed for the new building.

I have pasted the two prioritized lists below. The board used the same scoring matrix it’s used before to rank the projects using criteria such as whether it supports the institution’s mission, whether it’s necessary for the school to continue current activities, how much more it will cost if the project is put on hold, the impact on the school’s operating budget, how much has already been raised for the project, etc.

On a side note, I would add that the Missouri Department of Higher Education has also sent two officials out this summer to visit every public college campus in the state to see first-hand the facility needs that are out there. Higher Education Commissioner Robert Stein wrote about this effort recently in his new blog.

In the blog post in which he advocates for a state-wide bond issue, he quotes Zora AuBuchon, a deputy commissioner who reports, “We’re finding a physical system on the brink of crisis…Colleges and universities have done the best they can with limited resources in recent years, but they need a major infusion of funds to address growing needs. Many buildings need major surgery, and current state appropriations are only enough for a band aid.”

That doesn’t sound good.

And now, here are the CBHE’s prioritized lists. Note that there are two lists — one for community college and one for four-year universities:

Four-year schools:

• 1. Truman State University: Baldwin/McClain renovation, $39.6 million ($41.9 million total)
• 2. Missouri S&T: Schrenk Hall renovation/addition, $68.7 million ($85.8 million total)
• 3. Northwest Missouri State U.: new academic building, $15.8 million ($19.7 million total)
• 4. Linn State Technical College: engineering technology renovation, $4 million
• 5. University of Missouri-Columbia: Laffere Hall renovation/addition, $51 million ($62.9 million total)
• 6. University of Missouri-Kansas City: Miller Nichols Library renovation, $40.7 million ($67.2 million total)
• 7. University of Missouri-St. Louis: optometry/nursing complex, $63 million ($78.9 million total)
• 8. Southeast Missouri State University: applied science complex, $37 million ($39 million total)
• 9. Harris-Stowe State University: Vashon Center renovation, $15.8 million ($18.3 million total)
• 10. Lincoln University: new science building, $32.7 million ($34.4 million total)
• 11. Missouri State University: Ozarks health and life sciences, $72.4 million ($90.5 million total)
• 12. University of Central Missouri: new science and math bldg, $55 million
• 13. Missouri Western State Univ.: Potter hall renovation/addition, $35.1 million
• 14. Missouri Southern State Univ., new college of osteopathic medicine, $30 million

Community Colleges:

• 1. Moberly Area Community College: new Hannibal Area Education Center, $2 million ($4.8 million total cost)
• 2. St. Louis Community College: science lab renovations, $7 million
• 3. East Central College: administration building renovation, $4.1 million ($8.2 million total)
• 4. North Central Missouri College: Geyer Hall renovation, $3.7 million
• 5. Crowder College, new health and science bldg: $2.3 million ($4.5 million total)
• 6. St. Charles Community College: new life sciences facility, $7.5 million, ($8.9 million total)
• 7. Mineral Area College: science/allied health expansion, $7 million
• 8. Ozarks Technical Community College: new career training center, $17 million
• 9. Metropolitan Community Colleges: homeland security regional training institute, $2.8 million
• 10. State Fair Community College, automotive technology building, $2 million
• 11. Three Rivers Community College, new academic student success center, $3.4 million ($3.8 million total)
• 12. Jefferson College, new allied health building, $19 million

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