Testimony to the Maryland General Assembly
Capital Projects
Presented by
Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr.
President
University of Maryland, College Park
March 2006

The University of Maryland has moved rapidly to a new level of distinction and excellence. To accommodate the research generated by our outstanding faculty and to guarantee the highest quality education for our undergraduate and graduate students, we must provide physical facilities appropriate to the needs of a modern university.

Priorities for capital funding this year include the second year of planning funds for the renovation of Tawes and the final year of funding for equipment for the new Biosciences Research Building.

1. Renovation of Tawes Building

The request for funding to renovate Tawes is the essence of facilities renewal. Our plan is to take an obsolete, substandard building located in the heart of the campus, and transform it into a modern classroom and academic space appropriate for the 21st century.

This year's budget request is for the second year of planning money for the renovation of the Tawes Building. Design and planning are on schedule, and pre-schematic plans have been submitted from the A/E firm Einhorn, Yaffe & Prescott. The construction management firm J. Vinton Schafer has been hired to start pre-construction services.

The renovation of the Tawes Fine Arts Building for the Department of English is urgently needed to support a 21st century English education for the 20,000 students that the Department serves each year, providing them with the writing skills necessary to compete in today's workforce and preparing them to be productive citizens. In addition, it is needed to improve the efficient and effective use of our resources, and to provide urgently needed renewal to the Tawes Fine Arts Building, which will be almost 50 years old when the renovations are completed, an age when building systems are well past their useful life. This project is a priority because it will enhance critical core mission educational services that impact every undergraduate student, and because it will provide appropriate accommodations for a department that will have been in cramped, temporary space for 18 years.

English is a core program of the University. The Department teaches 20,000 students per year, and offers 52,000 of the 800,000 annual credit hours taught at the University of Maryland. We require every undergraduate student to take two courses in our nationally acclaimed writing program called the "Maryland Model" which gives them the skills they need to compete in today's workforce. Our nationally recognized Writing Center tutors 6,000 campus students annually. Both federal and private institutions have contracted with the Department to provide writing instruction for their employees. The latest U.S. News & World Report ranks the Department's American Literature, African American Literature, and Creative Writing programs among the top 20 in the country.

The existing facility is a surge building the Department accepted in 1990 for an 18-24 month period. It does not allow the Department of English to provide the 21st century writing instruction expected of the State's Flagship University, nor to recruit and retain top faculty. Graduate teaching assistants are in former gym space in Preinkert Field House; the Writing Center is in Taliaferro Hall; and the faculty and administrators are in the cramped surge building on the edge of campus. Nearly half of our distinguished faculty share offices and, in many cases, three instructors share the same desk. Due to the temporary nature of the existing space, the classrooms have not been equipped with modern teaching technology. This project will outfit classrooms with modern teaching technology, unify the Department in a central and accessible location on campus, and provide an adequate number of offices to house our faculty and instructors fittingly.

It will improve the efficient use of our resources. In February 2004, the Board of Regents adopted an update to its Strategic Plan that emphasizes the effective and efficient stewardship of resources to achieve strategic goals. The Board of Regents has increased expectations for UM to do this. Converting Tawes Fine Arts Building for the Department of English presents us with tremendous opportunities in this regard.

1. Converting Tawes for English is more cost effective than constructing a new building. Our aging facilities are undermining our goal to build a world-class university. Focusing capital resources on the renewal of our existing buildings rather than constructing new buildings would, in many cases, provide a more cost effective solution to our facilities problems. Converting Tawes for English is estimated to cost $182 per GSF in escalated dollars. If we built a new building instead, it would cost about $350 per GSF, almost double the cost. If funding is provided when scheduled, Tawes will be 50 years old when the conversion is completed, an age when building systems are well past their useful life. Tawes urgently needs systems upgrades. For years we have been implementing "band-aid" repairs to keep the HVAC system barely operating, such as pouring "stop-it" liquid in radiators and cooling pipes to stop leaks!

The English Department will vacate the surge building (Susquehanna Hall), which will be used as surge space for a succession of critically needed renovations of our aged historic buildings along McKeldin Mall. The first of these is Jimenez Hall, which is in the CIP in FY 2011 and will be 48 years old when work is initiated. Subsequently, we plan to renovate portions of Francis Scott Key Hall (built in 1932), Symons Hall (built in 1940), and Woods Hall (built in 1948). This project will provide for cost effective facilities solutions by releasing surge space that will allow us to renew our existing infrastructure.

2. Tawes is currently under-utilized. Excluding Tawes Theater and Ulrich Recital Hall, almost 20 percent of the space in Tawes is not occupied because it is in poor condition (as noted previously), or was specifically designed for performing arts activities and cannot easily accommodate the needs of other academic programs. Small academic units are temporarily occupying Tawes and will relocate elsewhere when construction on this project begins. This project will result in 100 percent usage of the space in Tawes.

3. Tawes provides the opportunity to unify the English Department in a central campus location. Bringing this currently scattered Department under one roof will allow it to maximize the efficient provision of services within existing resources. Also, putting it in a central location will make the services more accessible to our 25,000 undergraduate students, all of whom take advantage of its services.

2. Equipment for the Biosciences Research Building

Another University priority in the capital budget is the second and final phase of state funding for capital equipment. Our request of $2.3 million is for funds that will be used to purchase some of the state-of-the-art equipment that will allow a level of research and education not possible in current facilities.

The Bioscience Research Building is now well under construction, with 75% of the project complete, on schedule and on budget. The building will be completed by fall 2006. The need for additional equipment is acute. This request includes equipment that will be dedicated to host-pathogen interactions, which will be vital in the battle against bioterrorism and emerging diseases.

The Biosciences Research Building represents a major investment on the part of State and on the part of the University. Leaders in the General Assembly recognized from the beginning that this facility was not just another building, but a pivotal step in meeting the future educational and business needs of the State. Governor Ehrlich and his economic development team have been key supporters of this initiative, determined to keep Maryland's strong position as a leader in the powerful biotech industry. Part of our mandate is to serve the State in responding to this opportunity and to the future potential of the biotech industry in the State. Partnerships are built between partners equal in strength, and we will be an aggressive partner in this enterprise of importance to the State.

This building and the research it will produce will cement the partnerships we have with industry, and complement activities of our Technology Advancement Program and Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program, which have nurtured many of the leaders and coming stars in the Maryland biotech field.

Since 1998, the University has made strong biosciences a priority. Our investment has paid off: research activities have surged; partnerships and collaborations are on the increase; and the students we are preparing for work in a specialized field are more talented than ever. The 31 tenured/tenure-track faculty hired in the College of Life Sciences since FY1998 have generated a cumulative total of $36.3M in grant support at UM from sources such as NIH, NSF, DOD, DOE, USDA, NASA and private foundations.