Repairs to Illinois State University's fire-damaged Lexington farm property are expected to cost around $2.5 million, according to a recent report from the university's insurer.
ISU's Board of Trustees on Friday gave its stamp of approval to a resolution authorizing repairs to the property and burned building with the expectation that costs not covered by an insurance payout of $1.7 million will be reimbursed. According to meeting documents, goals of the project include rebuilding a destroyed calf birthing room by Feb. 1 and fully restoring the farm's operations by the fall semester.
The damage to the beef barn is the result of a Nov. 18 fire that started shortly after midnight and destroyed around 31,000 square feet of the facility — although none of the 116 livestock housed there were injured. The 434-acre farm serves as a learning lab for about 150 students each semester, meeting documents said.
ISU Vice President for Finance and Planning Dan Stephens told BOT members Friday the process needed their approval due to its costs. Around $575,000 in university funds already have been allocated to "expedite the farm restoration effort," an amount of money that needed board approval. Stephens said it's possible additional charges could land another financial resolution in front of the board for its approval down the road, part of a normal process when dealing with insurers and estimates.
"They give you an initial estimate. They even give you an initial check," he said. "It is not the final settlement until you end up getting a contractor that comes in ... So that final reconciliation ... is something we are now in the process of doing because we only got the report back from them a few days ago."
More repairs, rehabilitation, rebuilding
Repairs at University Farm were just one of several expense-related matters that received BOT approval on Friday.
Trustees also approved a capital project impacting Fairchild Hall and the Rachel Cooper building, both on campus. Following that approval, the two 1952-era buildings will receive updated mechanical systems, including hazardous material abatement and replaced piping. Most of the systems and piping currently in place, according to meeting documents, are original to the buildings and "are starting to fail at an increasing rate and pose a potential health hazard to occupants and service workers."
Renovations are slated to begin in May and be completed by the end of August.
Trustees also approved up to $1.7 million in pre-construction work at Williams Hall, costs that cover project commissioning fees, management fees and other expenses. According to meeting documents, Williams Hall is slated to be the future location of a Faculty Success Center — now known as the Center for Integrated Professional Development (CIPD) — partly due to its proximity to the Quad.
Due to "deferred maintenance," "numerous" building code issues and more, the building's conditions are not suitable for that purpose yet, and the university intends to bid out the project. Depending on design and repair needs, upgrading Williams Hall could costbetween $10-15 million when the project finally gets underway. The CIPD has moved around campus multiple times; mostly recently in 2019, university officials had planned to move it to multiple floors in Milner Library before recommendations suggested allowing CIPD to remain in Williams Hall.
Renovations at CEFCU Arena also received BOT approval, part of an effort to correct an existing disparity between the space for men's and women's programs. The arena is home to ISU's Athletics Administrative and Business offices, as well as offices, fitness and locker rooms for men's and women's basketball and volleyball. To correct a disparity that favored men's sports, the university plans to move the women's volleyball facilities into the Athletics Business Office Suite on the main floor — which then requires that office to be relocated. Trustees approved an estimated $550,000 renovation of CEFCU Arena Room 150 into office space.
"I just had an observation: It took only 50 years after Title IX to get this disparity fixed," trustee Kathy Bohn said.
Asked whether ISU was looking at any other disparity issues in sports programming, athletic director Kyle Brennan told trustees "we're looking at it constantly.
"This was the first one that really popped out to us as something that was very visible in the disparity between men and women," he said. Projects "are not always based on who needs it most right away, but more like they're dominoes that need to fall: If this office gets done, then the next office gets done and so on. So, we've continued to evaluate to make sure we can clean up any disparity."
The board also approved construction of a new greenhouse facility next to the Carter Harris Building. The plan is to move Biological Sciences to that facility while the 1964-era Felmley Science Annex is torn down and another four-story building with a greenhouse and a headhouse on top of it. That building would be slated to house nine research or teaching labs. The cost for the project is expected to be around $40-50 million "depending on final design."
Trustee Julie Jones noted the board keeps getting "these resolutions in front of the board for the greenhouse and we keep voting on them" and sought clarification regarding why. Stephens said ISU officials had brought trustees a resolution in 2020 that would have included updates on the current greenhouse; the onset of COVID-19 led the board to delay those plans and "we're kind of glad that you did," Stephens said.
"As we came to study over the past few years our science and STEM buildings and the growth in those enrollments, we discovered a need for not only a new greenhouse, but the need to have some very specific types of biology and chemistry labs with fume hoods," he said.
Jones said she was "still trying to wrap my head around $35 million and $45 million," but thanked Stephens for the explanation. He added the "State of Illinois struggles with capital — operating appropriations it continues to invest in, but it really struggles with capital."
"If the state had the ability to contribute that, we wouldn't be bringing this — it would have already been renovated, similar to Williams (Hall)," he said. "Our academic enhancement fee was put in place exactly for that. This would be funded using those fees in the capital portion of that over, likely, a 10-year period of time. We've been planning for this, and this represents exactly what those investment dollars are for: ... The advancement of science and support of all our disciplines."
Interim president Aondover Tarhule, who headed the meeting after the BOT accepted former president Terri Goss Kinzy's resignation, said enrollment in science classes also is a driving factor in a need for a new building.
"We have five or six classes than enroll more than 1,000 students. All of those students have to go through labs and our labs were designed at a time past where, some of them house 18 students, some 25, but most 20," he said. "Take 1,000 students and try to run them through rooms that can house only 18 or 20 and you end up with, in some cases, more than 50 different (class) sections. We don't have enough space to run all of those labs — and frankly, the reason we are able to do it now is that some students don't go to labs. That's not what we hope for, but if everyone did, we wouldn't be able to accommodate them."
In other news the board:
- Recognized the service of former trustees Robert Dobski and Mary Ann Louderback, both appointed by former Gov. Bruce Rauner. Dobski sat on the board from 2008-2013, again in 2015, and then was appointed by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2019. Louderback was appointed to the BOT by Rauner in 2015.
- Approved an agreement that names a large dressing room after Dr. Edward & Mrs. Judith Hines CPA "in recognition of their generous financial commitment to the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts Complex Fund," according to meeting documents.
- Amended language in ISU's 1985 Auxiliary Facilities System Bond Resolution to better "reflect current auxiliary financing and market practices" and "bring ISU in line with certain other state universities."
