March 4, 2002

Baylor regents approve $200 million bond issue
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___WACO--Baylor University's regents approved a $200 million bond issue Feb. 22 to fund the largest period of construction in the university's 157-year history.
___Although construction equipment has blended into the Baylor skyline for several years as major buildings have been erected, university leadership plans to pick up the pace in order to meet the objectives of Baylor's 2012 strategic plan.
___Planned construction includes the largest single building project in university history, a $103 million, 500,000-square-foot science building.
___Groun

ARCHITECTURAL rendering shows Baylor University's new science building.

dbreaking for the science building, which will be located on what is now an intramural field adjacent to the McLane Student Life Center, is scheduled for May. The building should be occupied by the fall semester of 2004.
___It will feature laboratories, classrooms and faculty offices related to chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mathematics, neurosciences and psychology.
___This project will benefit every student at Baylor, Sloan said, because the sciences are part of the university's core curriculum. It also will strengthen Baylor's pre-med program and other health-sciences majors.
___About 40 percent of freshmen express an interest in health-care related careers, he said.
___The new structure will consolidate departments currently located in Sid Richardson and Marrs McLean science buildings. Those buildings will be reclaimed for other purposes, he said.
___Baylor has not built a new science building since 1967.
___Although enormous, the new science building is just the beginning of numerous construction projects slated as Baylor gears up to implement its 2012 strategic plan. That plan calls for creation of 1,800 new beds in student housing, more parking structures, greenbelts around the campus, pedestrian walkways and refurbishing of many existing facilities.
___A building spree of this type is "virtually unparalleled in American higher education," President Robert Sloan told news media after the regents meeting.
___In addition to approving final plans, funding and contracts for the science building, regents approved:
___ Construction of a new parking garage and office building, to be built on the current site of the Baylor Landing apartments, which will be razed. The new structure will provide 1,200 parking spaces and 30,000-square-feet of office space. Regents approved $25 million in funding for two such structures, although only one is slated for immediate construction.
___ $30 million for construction of new student housing. The first phase of housing construction will add 600 beds in a student village. Three si

A COMBINATION office building/parking garage planned at Baylor University is shown in an architect's drawing.

milar projects are called for in the campus master plan. The location and architectural plans for the residential buildings have not been finalized.
___ Plans and funding for improvements to the Baylor Marina pool facility. Improvements will include a new 5,000-square-foot structure for locker rooms, offices and a classroom. The $2.1 million project also includes installation of a retractable roof over the pool.
___ $10 million in information technology upgrades, including installation of a new supercomputer and the addition of more wireless technology across the campus.
___ Renovation of Morrison Constitution Hall, former home of the law school, for use by a new Honors College.
___ $25 million for miscellaneous real estate acquisitions. The exact location and nature of these acquisitions was not made public. However, the Waco Tribune-Herald recently reported that a holding company thought to be linked to Baylor has purchased large tracts of land between the campus and I-35 and along the north shore of the Brazos River.
___Some of these real estate acquisitions are thought to be related to the university's efforts to obtain the presidential library of George W. Bush.
___In the news conference after the regents meeting, Sloan acknowledged the university "has purchased some land that has fit our strategic plan." Further, Baylor has "numerous sites" to offer the proposed Bush library for consideration, he said.
___Along with the $200 million bond project, the university will refinance $45 million in existing debt.
___Sloan said Baylor has been "historically underleveraged" for the size of its operation and will take advantage of "very favorable rates" on the bonds. The university's debt-to-income ratio is "well below the typical benchmark" for universities of Baylor's size, he added.
___Meanwhile, fund-raising continues at a brisk pace, Sloan reported. The university already has gifts and pledges of $315 million toward its 2005 goal of $500 million. In the period between 2002 and 2012, Baylor plans to raise $1 billion in gifts.
___

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