Teleconference held for real estate review

IHL decision may drop need for board approval of big projects

Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Updated: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 22:03

Fairchild East

Construction continues on campus as heavy machinery lies in wait at the site of the proposed parking garage Wednesday. A new IHL provision could remove the need for board approval in projects less than $1 million.

The Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees held a teleconference last week to discuss possibly raising the cap for the maximum amount of money a state university can request without having to apply through the board.

Currently the threshold is $250,000, which is causing a log-jam in paperwork several board members said, who voted un-officially to raise the limit to either $1 million or $2 million. Any actual changes to the process would have to go before the

IHL's real estate committee when they meet next month, but all board members have given their support to raising the limit.

Rusty Postlewate, director of the USM Physical Plant, said the board first started seriously discussing raising the limit a few months ago as a way to eliminate some red tape on a lot of "little bitty projects" that must currently go before the board for discussion.

In the teleconference Wednesday morning, IHL board member Douglas Rouse mentioned that by raising the cap to $1 million it would knock out 58 percent of all real estate proposals currently going before the board, and by raising it to $2 million it would eliminate 71 percent of real estate proposals.

Most board members are in favor of just raising the cap to $1 million for now, as the jump from $250,000 to $2 million is seen as too drastic.

Some students are skeptical, however, that less regulation is exactly what USM needs right now, "That's a lot of money, and I think right now they should be making it harder for the university to spend money, not easier," said USM student Olivia Hurst, "with less regulation in regard to spending we can probably look forward to more things like the centennial gateway and raised tuition prices."

However another student, Ben Boudreaux, thinks that some good might come out of this, "The board probably just about approves everything USM asks of them, especially the small stuff. So maybe with some extra free time on their hands not dealing with paperwork they can try to figure out more solutions to the budget crunch instead."