Facilities and Support Services

Developing educated persons for the 21st Century requires a physical plant and services capable of meeting not only current needs, but the projected needs of students, staff, and faculty. Changing technology, geographic separation of the SMSU System campuses, and the backlog of needed repairs all contribute to the challenge of creating a positive and productive learning atmosphere over the next six years.

The value of SMSU’s real property, spread across the multi-campus system and encompassing 644 acres, exceeded $271 million in 1999 dollars. University facility assignable space consists of more than 2.6 million square feet, with student services taking up 40 percent of the total and instructional, research, academic, and institutional support accounting for the other 60 percent.

Facilities on SMSU’s campuses range from historic to modern, from agricultural cropland to sophisticated laboratories. Some facilities have been constructed expressly for academic purposes; others have been acquired and converted. Installed equipment for academic and administrative use ranges from obsolete to state-of-the art. All of these facilities and equipment support the institutional mission; all must be cared for.

Maintenance and repair

Many university buildings on SMSU’s campuses, including several property acquisitions offering tremendous potential for academic benefit, need major repair. Since 1995, $39.6 million has been appropriated in maintenance and repair funding. This is a three-fold increase over appropriations in the previous 10 years. While this is a significant investment and major improvement in the commitment to maintaining the university infrastructure, the trend has to continue to keep pace with recommended industry standards for ensuring proper care of physical plant assets. The industry standard is 2 to 4 percent of the current replacement value; SMSU received an average of 2.3 percent over the past six years.

Capital investment requirements

The university has received approximately $60.6 million for capital improvements to academic facilities over the past six years. This included $22.9 million for the Meyer Library Project, which includes the construction of a new Information Technology Center and renovation of the existing facility. Despite this effort, unprecedented growth in program offerings and enrollment has outstripped the university’s ability to provide adequate per capita academic and administrative space.

A significant infusion of capital investment is essential for the construction of needed facilities to fulfill future educational and administrative demands; modernization and renovation of existing structures to comply with building code requirements; and the provision of state-of-the-art classroom equipment comparable to technology with which university graduates will be expected to be proficient. Left unattended, the deficiencies in the university’s physical plant and equipment inventory will seriously retard the attainment of the goals expressed in this long-range plan. Increased state funding, supplemented by the infusion of private contributions, must be planned for, articulated, and realized.

Plans for the future

Facility construction/renovation efforts over the next six years throughout the university system are targeted at supporting the undergraduate and graduate academic environment for the mission and five major themes of the university.

On the Springfield Campus, the primary emphasis will be reutilization of physical space in the central campus core for academic purposes. New facilities and major renovations are planned for the themes of science and the environment, creative arts, and health. For example, creation of the Ozarks Public Health Institute will also require construction of a facility to house that program. And a renovation and expansion is planned for the College of Arts and Letters that would include renovation and expansion of Ellis Hall and Craig Hall, with a new structure to house the art and design department. Additional requirements for the SMSU System include a new library at SMSU-West Plains, that campus’s top capital priority, and growth of the SMSU Agriculture Research and Demonstration Center. Growth of the College of Business may necessitate the addition of a fifth floor on Glass Hall.

Where additional space is required for shorter term grants, projects, institutes, and continuing education programs, the university will seek to lease space. Ideally, that space will be close to campus or in the downtown area, allowing the university Bench to optimize its downtown revitalization partnership with the city and private developers and use of the shuttle system to move users to and from the main campus area.

The initial focus will be improvement of the existing physical plant assets to enhance the programmatic mission. The completion of the 140,000-square-foot Public Affairs Classroom Building in 1998 and other completed projects throughout the SMSU System, has enabled the university to engage in renovations to facilities on all the campuses to accommodate academic and administrative program requirements. The objectives of the plan are to promote efficiency through the best use of space, promote college integrity by locating departments in the proximity of their respective college, exercise good stewardship by using existing space instead of creating new space, and accomplish renovations in a timely manner. This reallocation of space makes good fiscal sense, promotes organizational cohesiveness, and will greatly enhance the university’s public affairs mission by updating several buildings with a long history of deferred maintenance issues and problems.

Following soon after as a high priority is a University College Hall renovation/addition project to house the administrative offices of University College, and offer space providing responsive information and support services to both current and prospective students. Other priority projects include: renovation of McDonald Arena to comply with standards for an adequate learning environment and create enhanced educational areas for health, physical education and recreation programs; a cooperative project with the Federal Transportation Agency to satisfy needed parking requirements on the southwest area of campus; a science and technology building to satisfy rapidly expanding science programs; and a complete renovation and expansion of the arts and letters complex to allow for a contiguous college offering quality programs.

SMSU’s intent to relocate traditional support services departments to the campus periphery will yield a major gain in both academic space and system efficiency. First, relocation will allow the central campus facilities presently housing support services functions to be reconfigured for other pressing needs. Second, traffic and pedestrian circulation in the central campus core will be enhanced when these facilities are converted to academic use. Service providers can operate from the periphery and penetrate the academic core to deliver requested support.

Construction of new facilities and renovation of existing space to meet the current and future institutional mission are both under way and planned. Chart K (below) summarizes these projects. Where state funding is either not available or appropriate, the university will continue to seek other sources of revenue to complete needed projects. Examples of such projects include a second intermodal transfer facility, an expanded campus shuttle system, and a baseball stadium. While not shown in Chart K, these projects are also important to the success of the long-range plan.

Chart K

Major capital investment highlights

FY01	Facilities Renovation/Reutilization Plan (Includes 10 facilities on three campuses)	$	7,800,000
FY01	FY01 Total	$	7,800,000

FY02	Facility Program Adaptation Plan (Includes University College Hall and McDonald Arena)	$	17,500,000
	Ozarks Health Institute - Planning	$	250,000
	Agricultural Center Renovation (State-Share)	$	2,600,000
	New Library at SMSU-West Plains - Planning	$	150,000
	FY02 Total	$	20,500,000

FY03	Ozarks Public Health Institute (OPHI)	$	25,000,000
	New Library at SMSU-West Plains	$	9,900,000
	Carrington Hall Renovation	$	10,000,000
	New Art & Design Building - Construction Design	$	2,830,000
	New Support Services Building - Planning	$	250,000
	FY03 Total	$	47,980,000

FY04	New Art & Design Building	$	25,900,000
	Post Office Building Addition/ Renovation at SMSU-West Plains	$	2,000,000
	New Support Services Building	$	10,000,000
	FY04 Total	$	37,900,000

FY05	Science Complex Addition/Renovation (Includes Temple Hall, Kemper Hall, Kings Street Annex, and Central Stores and Maintenance Building)	$	35,000,000
	Ellis Hall Addition/Renovation	$	12,800,000
	Professional Building Addition - Planning	$	250,000
	FY05 Total	$	48,050,000

FY06	Craig Hall Renovation/Addition	$	6,400,000
	Professional Building Addition	$	20,100,000
	FY06 Total	$	26,500,000

Jim D Morris Center for Continuing Education

One of 10 projects on three campuses in FREUP
University College Hall

Included in Facility Adaption Plan
Art and Design Building

This is an artist's rendering of the new structure at the corner of Grand and National which connects Craig Hall and Ellis Hall
Intermodal Transfer Facility

Located at Grand and Holland, this facility will be funded largely by federal funds and resemble the existing Park and Ride Facility.