FAYETTEVILLE — Trustees of the University of Arkansas System on Tuesday approved a request by Fayetteville campus officials to increase the maximum cost of the renovation and addition of Vol Walker Hall to $36.6 million.
Meeting via conference call, trustees authorized an additional $3.8 million for the Fay Jones School of Architecture project.
Fayetteville Chancellor G. David Gearhart told trustees that nearly all the additional funds will be spent on the planned 34,320-square-foot Steven L. Anderson Design Center, which will be added to the 76-year-old hall.
When completed in 2013, the hall and its addition will house students in the university’s architecture and landscape architecture departments and its interior design program.
“We would not be able to accommodate all three [programs] without adding square footage to the project,” Gearhart said. “We think it’s an important thing to do. We want all three components togetherin one facility.”
The renovation of Vol Walker Hall is estimated at $19.8 million. Construction of the design center, now expected to cost nearly $16.8 million, is supported by a $10 million gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas.
Gearhart told trustees that campus leaders are considering several options to make up for the additional $3.8 million, including additional fundraising or a tuition increase for architecture students.
The university charges a slightly higher base tuition rate for undergraduate architecture students: $205.38 per credit hour as opposed to $196.26 for most other students.
The university also chargesa higher tuition rate for business, nursing and law students, Gearhart said.
Increasing the tuition would be a “worst-case scenario” and would be phased in over three years, Gearhart said. “We’d like to be able to do this project without going there,” he said.
Trustees would have to approve the tuition increase.
Trustees on Tuesday also approved a recommendation to hire the Fayetteville architecture firm Miller Boskus Lack to design the university’s new Information Technology Support Building.
The building will be on Razorback Road, across from John McDonnell Field, home to the university’s outdoor track and field meets.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 10/27/2011