Trustees at UMass approve $2.5b capital spending campaign

Trustees at the University of Mass. approved a $2.5 billion capital spending campaign over the next five years to fund a building boom across its five campuses. The plan, which is contingent on substantial state and federal support, would finance new academic and research facilities and renovate aging structures. The plan calls for the university to borrow $1.4 billion and receive almost $800 million from the state government. Of the $1.7 billion the university has spent on construction and renovation in the past eight years, the state funding covered 16%, the university said. But this year's $2 billion higher education capital bill and the $1 billion life sciences legislation, which combined will steer well over $1 billion to the university, has sparked hope for expanded spending. The plan features a $100 million science building and $53 million student recreation center at UMass Amherst; a $152 million science complex and $100 million academic building at UMass Boston, $75 million in student housing renovations at UMass Dartmouth; a $90 million emerging technologies center at UMass Lowell and a $333 million science building at the Medical School in Worcester. The plan, approved by a finance committee, comes to a vote of the full board of trustees Sept. 26th.