In November 2015, the university cut the ribbon on the $19.5 million High Performance Center. Randy Magill, associate athletics director and chief financial officer for University of North Dakota athletics, told the Grand Forks Herald that the high tech track featured in the facility is the only 300-meter track in the United States and has the technologically advanced Mondo surface. The High Performance Center may even continue to grow, as officials have already asked the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education for approval to begin fundraising for the addition of locker rooms, an administrative area, and training and educational space, according to the Grand Forks Herald.

Another addition to the campus will be a $15.5 million expansion to the existing College of Engineering and Mines, creating the new 37,000-square-foot Collaborative Energy Complex. According the Grand Forks Herald, University of North Dakota College of Engineering and Mines Dean Hesham El-Rewini said the project is on time and is within budget. The Collaborative Energy Complex will connect several campus buildings and will be externally complete by fall 2016. Lab equipment will be installed and the building should be open no later than the spring 2017 semester. Work began on the project in July 2015.

"More than just a building to house programs, CEC is about people, about collaboration, about innovation, and about building bridges with industry. It will provide students and faculty with a place to interact with each other as well as with colleagues from other colleges on campus and with industry," El-Rewini said in a statement. "CEC will provide our students and researchers with access to cutting edge laboratories and equipment. Students’ educational experience will be enriched through industry interactions, personalized mentorship, professional development opportunities, and outreach activities.”

Although the Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library, which contains numerous geological samples, is owned by the North Dakota Geological Survey and not the University of North Dakota, it is also undergoing upgrades and an expansion. The building will expand into a 160-spot parking lot adjacent to the Collaborative Energy Complex and will eventually connect via skyway to Leonard Hall. Library Director Julie LeFever told the Grand Forks Herald that the project is set to be complete in September 2016. With the addition of a two-story building, the current 15,000-square-foot library will soon contain three times the previous amount of storage space.

Additionally, a 66,000-square-foot aerospace research building is scheduled for major completion in May 2016. Construction on the facility, Robin Hall, is estimated at $22 million. Currently, the majority of the building is enclosed and some windows have been installed. Additional interior work and furnishings will be completed during over the summer of 2016, according to the Grand Forks Herald. The school broke ground on the project in October 2014. Prior to that, the most recent department expansion occurred in 1991.

Finally, exterior work on a $124 million, four-story facility for the School of Medicine and Health Sciences is nearly complete and construction has primarily moved inside the facility. Spokeswoman for the School of Medicine and Health Sciences Jessica Sobolik told the Grand Forks Herald that the 325,000-square-foot project is on time as well as on budget and is scheduled to be complete in May. Work began on the facility, which will for the first time bring all related departments under one roof, in June 2014.

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“As OSU alumni and Central Oregon homeowners, Connie and I are very committed to the success of OSU-Cascades,” said Lee Kearney, a retired executive of Kiewit Construction who also serves on the advisory board of the Oregon State College of Engineering, in a statement. “This sustainability initiative will provide a living laboratory for students and faculty interested in energy conservation and independence, and is very aligned with Central Oregon’s values.“

“This commitment marks a first significant step toward the creation of a campus that sets the standard for sustainability and net zero energy and resource use,” added OSU-Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson in a statement. “We are thrilled by the Kearneys’ visionary leadership and their commitment to higher education in Central Oregon. We are also deeply grateful that other Central Oregon leaders have pledged their support for this innovative vision of a sustainable future for OSU-Cascades.”

The university has also received a $75,000 gift from Rod and Laurie Ray to support the initiative. An OSU alumnus, Rod Ray also serves as a trustee of the OSU Foundation and is chair of the advisory board of the College of Engineering. Deschutes Brewery, a long-time supporter of the university, has committed a further $50,000 towards the initiative.

These gifts will support sustainable design approaches for the campus’s first academic building, reducing energy demand as much as possible, and installing monitoring equipment that will help to motivate energy saving behavior by building occupants, according to a statement by the university. Design and mechanical features made possible through these gifts include a highly efficient building envelope, the highest efficiency heating and cooling system, and functionality to incorporate solar, biomass and geothermal energy sources. These design features will result in approximately 40 percent less energy usage compared to similar structures built to meet current energy code standards.

“A sustainable campus isn’t just about going green,” said Matt Shinderman, a senior instructor in natural resources who leads the sustainability degree program at the branch campus and served as co-chair of the OSU-Cascades Campus Expansion Advisory Committee, in a statement. “It can also serve as a living laboratory for study and research, and attract students and faculty who care about energy and resource independence.”

The OSU-Cascades branch campus currently offers 18 undergraduate major programs, 30 minor programs and options, and three graduate programs. The branch campus plans to expand to a four-year university beginning in fall 2015.

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“The master plan update is a crucial process that allows Cal Poly to create the infrastructure and environment necessary to support the university’s academic programs and advance its long-term vision,” said Cal Poly SLO President Jeffrey D. Armstrong in a statement. “Given its significance, we encourage those on campus and in the community to get involved and share their input.”

The master-planning process received a boost with a generous $20 million donation from former chief financial officer of Apple Peter Oppenheimer and wife Mary Beth, both Cal Poly SLO alumni, in particular. Not only was the Oppenheimers’ donation the largest in school history, it will finally allow the public university to make much needed changes.

Cal Poly’s last master plan was approved in 2001, but was not completed until 2013, when the school built its last project from that plan, which was a 189,000-square-foot math and sciences building. In a recent announcement, Cal Poly SLO officials expressed that they would like to key in on student housing, future programming and basic infrastructure, to name a few, but are willing to accept input from all members of the SLO community.

“We want the community to show us issues and concerns, then later next March, we’ll do this again and have materials to share and get reactions,” said Linda Dalton, university planning officer for Cal Poly SLO, in a statement.

Once this new master plan is finished, the committee will initiate a fundraising campaign in order to complete a plethora of additional projects. With the Oppenheimers’ gift in particular, school leaders plan to build a new Agricultural Events Center capable of supporting livestock events, industry activities, and the college’s experimental student learning programs. The Oppenheimer gift will also provide Cal Poly with a new partially enclosed and covered Equestrian Pavilion, as well as a farm store that will allow students to buy and sell fresh, farm-raised products on campus.

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“I am pleased to share the good news that we have reached an important juncture in our planning process for the East Campus and Kendall Square area,” Schmidt said in a statement. “Together with President Rafael Reif, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart, and Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz, I am recommending that MIT advance a proposal that we believe will achieve the vibrancy and integration that is essential for that critical gateway area of the campus.”

MIT’s Faculty Task Force on Community Engagement in 2030 Planning first recommended the university conduct an East Campus planning study, as well as a review of graduate student housing needs, in 2010, Schmidt said. This resulted in a recommendation to create up to 600 new housing units for graduate students.

The Cambridge City Council approved MIT’s petition to transform the 26-acre Kendall Square space, which the university already owns, in April 2013. This prompted the school to commission an urban design study in the fall of 2013 to explore a number of development options and host a series of open forums to glean community feedback. MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning further refined the concepts developed throughout the study.

A rendering of the resulting development proposal shows spaces for the MIT Museum, a number of academic facilities, and retail and office areas. It also envisions underground parking, ensures vehicular access to MIT Medical and would replace the existing Eastgate residence hall with a new laboratory building. While a primary goal of the new development is to increase student housing, higher capacity residence options have been provided elsewhere within the development.

The university has already issued Requests for Proposals seeking building concepts to present to city officials for review. “Our hope is to begin that process in the fall,” Schmidt said in a statement. “There will be ample opportunity for continued information sharing and conversation through community meetings and public hearings.”

The East Campus and Kendall Square project would build on MIT’s recent construction boom, which has resulted in a plethora of new facilities. Between 1998 and 2010, the university renovated 875,000 gross square feet of existing buildings and completed over 2.6 million gross square feet of new construction.

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Rick Anderson, Washburn University’s treasurer and vice president for administration, said in a release that work with the architecture firms will begin in the coming days, and that construction will be up for bid this December. The building is expected to cost approximately $30 million, and construction will likely begin by March 2015. Students are expected to move into the new facility in time for the fall 2016 semester.

According to Denise Ottinger, vice president for student life, the exact configuration of the new student housing facility has not yet been determined, and will depend on financial feasibility. However, Washburn administrators have said that the suite-style student rooms will share common living space as they do in two of the university’s existing residence halls.

The new dining facility will specifically seek to address the lunchtime bottleneck experienced at the existing Memorial Union, and meet the need for additional programming space and expanded late night dining options. Ottinger added in a release that the university hopes the new facility will become a post-game destination for the campus community.

Construction of the new housing and dining structure will also help address the university’s residence hall wait list, which it has maintained for the past four years.
According to Anderson, lack of housing is one reason the school loses prospective students to other colleges and universities.

"We don’t know how many students we lose because we don’t have housing," Anderson said in a statement. "But that does happen."

The momentum created by this and other building projects included in the university’s 10-year campus master plan are likely to have a positive impact on both enrollment and the Washburn community. Currently Washburn is conducting extensive renovations to the Welcome Center at Morgan Hall, which will soon serve as the university’s “front door.” The multimillion renovation will enable students conduct a number of admission, registration, advising and financial aid activities under one roof, and is expected to be completed in time for the school’s 2015 sesquicentennial celebration.

Meanwhile, Washburn has also partnered with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to construct a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory on campus. Upon completion the approximately $55 million, 100,000-square-foot facility will house the state’s crime lab, and allow the university to expand its biological, computer/digital and anthropological forensics course offerings.

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