NEWS Release

UNCG AND THE NORTH CAROLINA HIGHER EDUCATION BONDS

GREENSBORO -- Overwhelming citizen support for the state’s Higher Education Bonds has brought The University of North Carolina at Greensboro to the March 12 groundbreaking for the new $47.7 million Science Building. When completed in approximately two years, the building will provide cutting-edge laboratories and classrooms for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Department of Biology.

The Science Building was UNCG’s top priority item in the state’s $3.1 billion bond package for the UNC system and the N.C. Community College System, which was on the ballot last November. Early returns on election night showed the bonds had heavy support, and the final count revealed that more than 70 percent of the voters statewide approved the issuance of bonds. The funds were divided with approximately $600 million earmarked for the state’s 58 community colleges and approximately $2.5 billion going to the UNC system.

Over the next eight years, the bonds will fund UNCG projects totaling almost $160 million. In addition to the Science Building, funds will be used for renovation of eight existing buildings, land purchase and expanding the campus infrastructure. Part of the renovation will be the venerable Georgian-style Petty Building, built in 1939, which has housed the Department of Chemistry.

 To reach today’s big event, UNCG and other campuses underwent a massive review of their physical facilities needs. Conducted by consultant Eva Klein and Associates, the study began in 1997 and focused on the campuses’ needs for both renovation of existing structures and their projected requirements for new buildings. The recommendations were balanced against a report, which projected that, the UNC system could expect an additional 48,000 students before the end of the current decade, with UNCG’s enrollment expected to reach about 17,000 by 2008. The original Klein report concluded that the campuses were in poor condition and it went on to identify a total of $6.9 million in new buildings and renovation needs. The list was later pared down to facilities that were deemed essential to the academic missions of the campuses.

In the study, UNCG had the dubious honor of being labeled “neediest” among the 16 system campuses, with buildings that averaged 47 years in age. Klein did not criticize the upkeep of the buildings but noted that many of UNCG’s facilities, and others in the system, had “outlived” their usefulness for instruction. At UNCG, chemistry has been taught in the Petty Building, which will be renovated for classroom space with bond funding.

During the first trip through the N.C. General Assembly in the spring and summer of 1999, the bond referendum was not approved when the House and Senate failed to reach a compromise on the size of a funding package to put before voters. During 2000, however, the list of projects was revised with a $3.1 billion total—the largest referendum ever put before voters. It received legislative approval and a statewide campaign went on during the summer and fall, led by UNC President Molly Corbett Broad. That successful effort touched the hearts and minds of voters, and brings us to this groundbreaking.
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