MUNCIE – The state Legislature has approved Ball State University’s request for $62.5 million for construction to house a new college of health sciences and professions.
In addition, the Legislature approved a 3.4 percent increase in state appropriations for the university’s operations budget over the 2015-17 biennium, BSU trustees were told on Friday by Julie Halbig, vice president for governmental relations.
The other major revenue source for the university is tuition/fees.
“Ball State ended up in a good spot at the end of the session,” Halbig said. “It’s the first operating increase for the university since the big national recession hit in 2008.”
State appropriations for BSU operational expenses will total $124 million in 2015-16 and $126 million in 2016-17.
Halbig thanked legislators including Sen. Luke Kenley, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who, at a hearing in March, said it was “almost mandatory” that the Legislature fund construction of a new health sciences/professions facility.
He called Cooper Science Complex, built in the 1960s, “pretty atrocious and outdated.”
The new college would include nursing, exercise science, gerontology, social work, physical education, nutrition/dietetics, athletic training, respiratory therapy, speech pathology/audiology, health education and numerous clinics and labs to serve the community.