Only the Finance, Audit and Strategic Planning Committee met in Indianapolis to review a resolution to issue student fee bonds to fund the construction and renovation of two buildings on IU’s ?campuses.
The bonds will be issued for the renovations currently underway at Franklin Hall on the IU-Bloomington campus and also for IU Northwest’s construction of an arts and science building.
Don Lukes, the associate vice president and associate treasurer in the IU Office of the Treasurer , presented the review of the resolution for the student fee bonds.
“In essence, tuition or fees could be used to pay the debt service on student fee bonds,” Lukes said. “In this case, and in some cases, the state will provide funding to support the debt service on the bonds.”
In total, both buildings are estimated to cost $66 million to complete, with Franklin Hall costing about $21 million, Lukes said.
“We’re using the bond issue to provide the cash to pay for the projects,” he said.
The meeting, which was not part of the trustees’ regular schedule, commenced because of historically low interest rates for bonds, Luke said .
Lukes said, with the special meeting, they will be able to price the bonds before the new year. Their current target date is Dec. 8.
“If we had waited for the regular board of trustees meeting in December, it would have been difficult to get the bonds priced before the holiday break,” Lukes said. “We probably would have had to wait until January.”
Kathrine Schulze
