Trustees approve new building

The IU board of trustees approved a new $3 million three-story building at 802 E. Third St. during its Friday business meeting. The building will hold 82 offices, three classrooms and two laboratories, said student trustee Casey Cox.\n"There is a tremendous need for academic and research space," Cox said. "It was a pretty uncontroversial bill." \nHuman biology and biotechnology laboratories will be housed on the first floor and communication and culture departments will use the office spaces on the second and third floors, IU officials said. Currently on the site is a two-story office building for mathematics graduate students. \nWhile there was little controversy on the subject at the meeting, there was some resistance from the Bloomington community. The Elm Heights Neighborhood Association opposed construction near Third Street and Atwater Avenue, but Cox said there was no dissent during the meeting. \nAfter previously voting on stricter admission standards at the Bloomington and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis campuses, trustee Sue Talbot said the board agreed with the standards that campus faculty presented for the remaining IU schools.\n"We're continuing to look at entry standards for IU campuses," Talbot said. "We had the second reading for admission standards and voted unanimously for the increases at Gary, IU-North, IU-South Bend, IU-Kokomo, IU-East and IU-Southeast." \nAnother topic on the agenda was an integrated image project. As trustees met in Kokomo for the meeting, Cox said he noticed that it was one of the IU campuses that varies its image from the standard interlocking IU pitchfork symbol. Talbot said that image unification has been ongoing for quite some time now. \n"I'm excited," Talbot said. "They've come up with a logo design that is going to help all of IU look more unified than it has in the past. It's good to have resolution on the issue"