Trustees to look at Master Plan

The board of trustees will discuss at a meeting today at IU-Southeast in New Albany the University’s Master Plan, a blueprint for IU’s architectural future.
 
Trustee Bill Cast called the Master Plan, which is an overview for construction for the Bloomington and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campuses for the next 20 years, one of the most important items on the trustee agenda.

The plan will serve as an outline for future projects, such as where to keep green space and regulations for buildings.

“The purpose of the Master Plan is to be certain you have enough chilled water, electricity, walking distances and that overall the campus is really an arboretum,” said Cast, who is the chair of the Facilities Committee.

The plan also identifies possible building sights, traffic patterns and other infrastructure factors. Cast said the plan is important to prevent future building problems.

“It should save money in the long run,” Cast said. “It’s expensive to make mistakes.”

President of the Board Steve Ferguson also said the Master Plan is crucial in the long run, but for the short term, talk of the budget – including an expected decrease in state funding – will be an essential topic.

He said IU has already taken steps to deal with a budget cut in the current fiscal year and also to plan for the next year.

“The board has been looking at various scenarios,” Ferguson said. “If we expect certain revenue levels, here are the adjustments we have to make.”

But Ferguson said Indiana is in better financial shape compared to other states, and he said the state and the University have addressed budget problems well.

“The University has been run on very sound financial grounds,” Ferguson said.

The meeting, which is open to the public, has a full agenda, but Cast said attendees to the trustees meeting might think nothing goes on because approvals happen very quickly.

“It’s the committee work in between that really takes all the time,” Cast said.

The board is also scheduled to hear more about the future of the name of the Wildermuth Intramural Center during a presentation from Terry Clapacs, head of the All University Committee on Names.

The committee recommended renaming the building the William L. Garrett-Ora L. Wildermith Fieldhouse.

But at a meeting in November, the trustees suggested the committee reconsider, and Trustee Patrick Shoulders presented a compromise: Keep the Wildermuth name and rename the Student Recreational Sports Center after Garrett.

During winter break, the committee affirmed its earlier recommendation to rename the Wildermuth Center.