Despite what students might think, funding new construction and building renovation at Ball State University involves more than tuition increases.
During the January Board of Trustees meeting, President Jo Ann Gora said Ball State had spent about $320 million on construction and renovation projects since she came to the university in August 2004.
Thomas Morrison, associate vice president for human resources and state relations, said the type of building Ball State planned to construct would affect the source of funding. For example, academic buildings and renovations to the heat plant would be funded by the state, but donations paid for the entirety of Shafer Tower.
The state, he said, would consider Dining and residence halls to be auxiliary facilities, and it would expect the users of those facilities to pay for construction and renovation.
A portion of room and board fees are placed into a housing and Dining reserve for this purpose, he said.
During the last 10 years, Morrison said, room and board had increased about five percent per year; however, the increase for the 2008-2009 school year would be less than four percent.
He said prior to Park Hall's construction, Ball State had not built a new residence hall in 38 years. By continually adding to the housing reserve, the university would not be forced to drastically increase room and board to fund construction projects, he said.
"Every student is seeing the benefit of those funds," Morrison said.
He said construction projects were part of long-term master plans. Some projects to be completed during President Gora's tenure were developed three decades ago, he said.
Because of factors such as inflation and rising building costs, Morrison said comparing the amount spent on construction under President Gora to spending by past presidents would be inaccurate.
"On a campus like ours, construction never really stops," Morrison said. "Even when you're not building new buildings, you're renovating older ones."
Most of Ball State's residence halls, including Studebaker Complex, DeHority Complex, LaFollette Complex and Noyer Halls, were built during the President John Richard Emens's tenure, Morrison said.
According to the Office of the President's Web site, enrollment increased from 1,010 in 1945 to more than 13,000 in 1968, the span of Emens's presidency.
Morrison said Ball State experienced another boom starting in the early 1970s, when several academic buildings including Bracken Library and Ball Communications were constructed within a decade.
Both Morrison and Ben Hancock, vice president for university advancement, said President Gora represented Ball State's chief fundraiser in many respects.
"President Gora is very good at telling the Ball State story and securing financial support for the university," Hancock said.
He said the university recently finished planning its next capital campaign to finance bricks-and-mortar projects on campus.
"I have really been impressed with the level of support this university is receiving [from donors]," Hancock said. "There's a lot of pride from alumni in what's happening. We're poised to take another big step forward in the overall support we receive."
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