Trustees approve capital projects during meeting

The IU Board of Trustees voted on proposals for $10.5 million worth of capital projects and passed improvements to the IU-Bloomington campus Thursday night at IU-East Richmond.

The IU Board of Trustees committee meetings scheduled for Friday were cancelled due to winter storms across Indiana.

The business meeting originally scheduled for Friday afternoon was moved to Thursday at 5 p.m.

IU Vice President for Capital Planning and Facilities Tom Morrison proposed two capital projects for the IU-Bloomington campus, Associate Vice President for IU Communications Mark Land said.

The Board approved a $6.8 million project to improve parking at the Northwest Quadrant. The plan replaces the existing gravel with a roadway and trees.

“It’s going to solve a lot of issues,” Land said. “It’s hard to offer parking to students with a gravel lot.”

The second project proposal passed, estimated at $3.7 million, will create a new loading dock for trucks delivering food to Wright Food Court. The dock will prevent trucks from blocking the one-way road that separates Wright and Teter quadrangles.
The Board also passed a proposal for a new degree for all regional campuses, a new Bachelor of Applied Science online degree.

The Bachelor of Applied Sciences would be a joint, fully-online degree. It will now go to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education for approval, Land said.

Some presentations originally scheduled for this morning have been moved to the board’s February meetings in Indianapolis, Land said.

— Hannah Alani