Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Gulf center at A&M-CC is weighed

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Tuesday, March 27, 2001
Gulf center at A&M-CC is weighed
$142 million is sought for South Texas projects
By Anna M. Tinsley
Scripps Howard Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - Lawmakers might decide today whether to authorize more than $142 million for projects requested by administrators of Texas A&M University campuses at Corpus Christi and Kingsville.
   Among the requests are two that officials at the Corpus Christi campus call their top priorities. One seeks $40 million for new classrooms. The other seeks $15 million to build a facility to house the Harte Research Center for Gulf of Mexico Studies.
   "One of my highest priorities is these construction programs,'' said Robert Furgason, university president.
   Officials in Kingsville want almost $53 million for such things as citrus research center in Weslaco and a student service center and general expansion on the main campus. The requests are part of a longer list up for review today by the House Higher Education Committee, which is headed by state Rep. Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville. The committee meets at 4 p.m.
   The review is part of a process occurring every four years when Texas' colleges and universities ask lawmakers for billions of dollars to construct new buildings, classrooms and other facilities on their campuses. This year, Texas' 36 public colleges and universities made 189 requests totaling $3.1 billion, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
   Lawmakers are expected to whittle down the list to between $500 million and $600 million.
   They could vote on a bill today that would determine which campus projects should be funded through tuition revenue bonds and which must be repaid with revenues from tuition and fees.
   The first item on the agenda is a tuition revenue bond bill by state Rep. Rob Junell, D-San Angelo, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
   Junell declined Monday to release the list of projects that made it into his bill and declined to confirm whether local projects made the list. He said that list would become public during the meeting.
   Rangel said competition for funding was tough because universities submitted so many requests. Furgason said the two local projects desperately need to make the list.
   Since 1994, when the school became a four-year university, the school's student body has grown 28 percent, from 5,152 students to 6,896 during fall 2000, according to university figures.
   University officials said growth has continued this year as they project overall enrollment to reach 7,000. Officials anticipate having 15,000 students by fall 2010.
   Furgason said the university has a space deficiency of more than 70,000 square feet. The shortage could reach 460,000 square feet by 2010 if additional space is not provided.
   "This institution is growing,'' he said.
   'Excellent' rating for project
   The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board rated the $40-million project as "excellent,'' meaning it's one of the most important projects the state could undertake.
   A $46 million endowment from former Caller-Times Publisher Edward H. Harte created the new Harte Research Center for Gulf of Mexico Studies. But the university is requesting $15 million to build a facility to house the center - a 60,000-square-foot building for research laboratories and offices. The campus now has no facility that can accommodate the new research.
   The coordinating board did not rate the research center project because Harte gave the gift after the university submitted project requests to the board, Furgason said.
   He since has added the $15 million request to the university's wish list.
   "We would hope that the people responsible (for allocating funding) in the legislative system would realize the uniqueness of this and how the timing occurred,'' he said. "This is a project that's important to the entire state of Texas.''
   Other plans
   Lawmakers will consider two other TAMU-CC projects:

$20 million for a recreation/kinesiology facility. Academic programs for this facility would be in health sciences, occupational therapy and kinesiology. The higher education coordinating board described the project as "desirable," which means it would contribute to the quality of the state's higher education system. But it falls below the top rating of excellent.

$15 million for campus infrastructure expansion and upgrades. The university proposes building a $3 million facility to house its central utility command center node for the campuses to oversee electrical, telephone, computer and video needs. The remaining $12 million would be used to build an outer utility loop.
   The higher education board rated the project excellent.
   Projects requested by Kingsville administrators include:

$20 million for general expansion in Kingsville.

$12 million for a wildlife center/agriculture building in Kingsville.

$12 million for the student service center in Kingsville.

$7.8 million for the citrus research center in Weslaco.

$4 million for a music building in Kingsville.


Scripps Howard Austin Bureau writer Anna M. Tinsley can be reached at (512) 334-6642, or by e-mail at tinsleya@scripps.com

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