MSU plans to build $24 million chemistry lab

Montana State University will ask the Board of Regents and Gov. Judy Martz this month to let it construct a new building — a $24 million chemistry and biochemistry research laboratory.

If approved, it would be paid for entirely with federal research grant money, not taxpayer dollars.

By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/03/11/news/02chemistrybzbigs.txt

The proposed 60,000-square-foot lab would be the biggest new building on campus in years.

The $22 million Engineering & Physical Science building opened in 1996 with 151,000 square feet, and the $12 million Ag BioScience building, with 39,000 square feet, opened in 1999.

MSU President Geoff Gamble said Wednesday the university has been trying for at least eight years to upgrade the aging chemistry research and teaching space in Gaines Hall. A couple of teaching labs have been refurbished, but most facilities are "real old," he said.

"It’s one of our premiere programs on campus," Gamble said. "Our students deserve better and I think our chemistry faculty deserves better."

Gamble said he has explained the proposal to the governor, who was "encouraging."

MSU has tried for years to find outside money to fix up or replace Gaines Hall.

The university tried to persuade private corporations to donate millions to construct an environmentally friendly "green" building. It asked the past two Legislatures to include rebuilding Gaines Hall in the state’s long-range building bond program.

Both efforts failed. Now MSU has decided to build the chemistry lab itself.

Without new labs, MSU wrote to the regents, the campus is "at great risk of losing faculty members who hold the greatest potential to contribute to economic development through their research."

The new lab would house researchers working on super-small "nanomaterials," energy, biotechnology, proteins and other areas.

MSU last year spent a record $80 million from research grants and contracts. Included in those grants was around $12 million to pay for overhead costs, said Craig Roloff, MSU’s acting vice president for finance.

It would take about $1 million a year from overhead funds, known as "indirect cost" or "facilities and administration" money, to pay off 30-year construction bonds, Roloff estimated. Heating and operating the labs, costing up to $775,000 a year, would also be paid from overhead dollars.

"We’re pledging a known revenue stream that’s been stable and has grown" over the years, Gamble said.

Provost Dave Dooley said Tuesday the new labs would be built downhill from Montana Hall, near where Cleveland Street has been covered with grass. Construction would begin in the summer of 2005.

"This really only solves half the problem," Roloff said.

While students would get some experience in the new labs, most instruction would remain at Gaines Hall. Renovating it would remain MSU’s No. 1 priority for state construction dollars.

Gamble said he’s not a big fan of building new buildings, but in this case, "It’s the right thing to do. It’s overdue."

Gail Schontzler is at [email protected]