KSU Capital Plan Targets Regional Campus Upgrade
KENT, Ohio -- A six-year capital plan approved Thursday by the Kent State University Board of Trustees requests state funding for key building and renovation projects for the university’s eight campuses for the period 2015 to 2020. The plan includes projects across Kent State’s seven regional campuses that include Trumbull, Salem and East Liverpool.
Also at the meeting, Kent State President Lester Lefton discussed a new Kent State initiative called “See You @College” designed to encourage high-school students -- especially first-generation, low-income, high-achieving students who may not consider college an option -- to begin thinking about and preparing to attend college.
All public colleges and universities in Ohio are required to submit such long-range plans every two years to the Ohio Board of Regents and all plans are contingent upon the levels of capital appropriations made by the Ohio General Assembly.
Kent State’s six-year capital plan, which requests about $86 million in state capital appropriations over six years, reflects academic priorities, infrastructure-upgrade needs and a backlog of deferred-maintenance projects. It supports the goals of the university's “Foundations of Excellence: Building the Future” initiative. This initiative uses $170 million in bond funding to transform the university with new buildings and revitalized classroom, laboratory, studio, performance, living and studying spaces in the next four years.
At the regional campuses, the plan targets classroom modernization, deferred maintenance and modest building expansions to address growing programs in areas such as nursing, allied health and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Among the projects are the continuation of classroom renovations at Kent State University at East Liverpool, completion of renovations to the original gymnasium at Kent State University at Salem to provide science laboratories and improvements to the Classroom Building Library/Theatre Building at Kent State University at Trumbull in Champion Township.
The "See You @College" initiative is intended to provide information and advice about the steps high school students must take to pursue postsecondary education and share with them Kent State’s many resources such as Web-based information and community mentors. The initiative will be launched with a conference on the Kent Campus on Feb. 13, 2014.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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