NSCS reaffirms construction priorities

The Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees reaffirmed their existing priorities for capital construction projects among the three-college system this afternoon.

The Board convened via videoconference at 1:30 p.m. MT from six different locations.

Representing Chadron State College was President Janie Park, NSCS board member Larry Teahon, and CSC Student Trustee Riley Machal. Also present were all three of CSC’s vice presidents and Charles Snare, future vice president of academic affairs.

Discussion centered on a 3-4 million dollar appropriation that a Nebraska legislator is offering the NSCS for renovation of Peru State College’s Oak Bowl football stadium.

Led by Teahon, various board members expressed concern that if the NSCS accepted the funds, the system’s future capital construction funding (especially CSC’s Armstrong Gym renovation) would be negatively affected. Teahon also voiced the concern that politics might be influencing the board’s decisions, if the board revaluated their priorities based on funding.

“Another concern I have is we’re allowing politics of state to dictate what our needs are,” Teahon said.

“Armstrong is a terribly inferior building,” Park said, citing that both space and the physical condition of the building, now more than 50 years old, warrant renovation. “It’s just an embarrassment.”

Nebraska Sen. John Harms, district 48, and Sen. Thomas Hansen, district 42, along with NSCS Chancellor Stan Carpenter visited Armstrong this past year to evaluate its condition.

“I think they were empathetic to our cause,” Carpenter said.

The board, through informal agreement, decided not to alter the priority of its current capital construction projects.

Further appropriations for the state colleges, if offered, would be discussed at the upcoming Nebraska Legislature’s session, which reconvenes Jan. 4, 2012.