UI to request construction, research funding from ed board

The University of Idaho will request an additional $4 million in its permanent building fund for fiscal year 2019 at the Idaho State Board of Education’s monthly meeting Thursday so it can begin design and construction on an 80,000-square-foot companion building to the recently completed $50 million Integrated Research and Innovation Center.

The $24 million phase-one portion of the new building is projected to be funded with $8 million in permanent building funds, $1 million in federal funding, $12 million in bonds and $3 million in gifts.

IRIC, which boasts 69,000 square feet in three stories and a penthouse, was not constructed for classroom or office space – which is what the UI is seeking. Instead, the building is “focused on high performance, research intensive laboratories, and core laboratories to be available to all research units and researchers campus wide,” according to the request to begin design and construction of its companion structure.

The proposed structure, according to documents from the SBOE, would be built in two phases, the first being a 40,000-square-foot building located at the intersection of Seventh and Line streets.

The chosen site is partially vacant, after the demolition of a former electrical substation. An existing building on the site, now the home of the Native American Education Center and College Assistance Migrant Program, has long been slated for demolition per the UI’s Long Range Campus Development Plan.

Programs located in the building will be relocated if the plan moves forward during this week’s meeting.

The second phase of the building – a 40,000-square-foot addition – will be addressed at an indeterminate time in the future.

According to the document, the building will house faculty offices and office suites, allowing collaborative spaces for small-scale departments and research institutes, computer research spaces, collaborative classrooms rich in technology, research and graduate assistant space, more collaboration spaces for research, seminar rooms and specialty research and research support spaces.

The university will also seek approval to commence with the planning and design phase of a new headquarters for its branch of the WWAMI program. The board agreed during a previous meeting to provide funding in the amount of $2.4 million, but as the scope of the project has widened, its expenses have increased by $1.22 million, which the university said will be covered by institutional funds.

WWAMI, which is a medical school program with locations in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, has quadrupled its enrollment numbers on the UI campus in the past two years.

The program formerly occupied – and grew out of – a portion of the UI’s Student Health Building. According to documentation provided to the SBOE by the UI, the building – which was formerly used by the UI’s Business and Technology Incubator – on Sweet and Main streets was chosen due to its ideal location for the program, but alterations are necessary as the structure is not large enough to manage its needs.

Dan Ewart, the UI’s vice president for infrastructure, said the building will receive an overhaul on the interior, as well as an eventual 6,000-square-foot addition.

Ewart said the building will provide laboratory and support space, and include small examination rooms, like those in clinics and hospitals, for students to practice in a real-world atmosphere.

UI’s WWAMI program is also facing bumps in the road due to Washington State University’s withdrawal, which will require the UI to cover the $250,000 annual expense formerly taken on by the Pullman institution to keep an anatomy lab open for students.

According to documents from the UI, the university plans to maintain the required laboratory space, as well as office space and interactive classrooms, on the third floor of Gritman Medical Center’s new building.

Ewart said the space will contain a morgue for student study as well as classrooms.

The 8,800-square-foot space is slated to be completed and occupied by January.

A one-time request for $159,600 to purchase four 10-passenger vehicles to allow for transportation between WWAMI sites is also listed.