FAIRBANKS — The University of Alaska Board of Regents is set to decide next steps for the partially completed engineering building at the Fairbanks campus.
The board will hold a special meeting Monday to vote on $37.5 million in bonds to resume construction and complete the building, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. President Jim Johnsen approved the special meeting earlier this month.
“We’ve got $70 million in that building and are spending money every year to maintain it and nothing is coming back to the university. No teaching is happening in that building, no research is happening in that building,” he said at a June 3 board meeting. “It’s a huge sunk cost. An opportunity waiting for investment.”
The project had started after the Alaska Legislature approved funding for it as well as an engineering building for the Anchorage campus in 2012. But progress on the UAF project has stalled in recent years amid the state’s multi-billion dollar budget deficit. The University of Alaska Anchorage engineering building opened for classes last fall.
The Fairbanks building’s completion has remained a top priority for the community and the Board of Regents, but several funding efforts have failed. Gov. Bill Walker had initially included $8 million in the budget last year for the project, but the money wasn’t there by the time the budget passed.
At their last meeting, the regents declined to take action on plans for the engineering building to have time to address concerns with the project.
“This may be what’s in the best interest of UAF and the university, but we’ll need a lot more information,” said Regent Gloria O’Neill at the June 3 meeting. “I think in good faith we really have got to think this through.”
