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The Texas Tech Board of Regents committee on facilities discussed a comprehensive review of existing residence halls during the Friday meeting to make sure the residence halls fit with the long-term plan of the university.
Rick Francis, chairman of the board’s facilities committee, spoke about several potential campus construction projects in progress.
The facilities committee has researched renovating vacant Weeks Hall and once again housing students in the residence. Weeks Hall, built in 1958, was one of the original buildings on campus and is adjacent to the College of Human Sciences at the university entrance on Broadway Avenue.
After looking into renovation projects on Weeks Hall, Francis said the facility is functionally obsolete with low ceilings and large amounts of asbestos.
He said if the board decides at the next meeting in December to go ahead with demolition of Weeks Hall and the adjacent Doak Conference Center, any new construction would be consistent with the Spanish Renaissance architecture on campus and keep with the long-term goals of the university.
Although Francis did not give an exact timetable for future construction, he said that work could begin sometime next year.
“We will move forward with residential expansion to meet student needs,” he said.
Tech President Guy Bailey said the preliminary goal is to create about 1,500 new bed spaces for housing in the next two to three years and to create additional research space.
He said although campus residence halls are at capacity, the university still will be able to adequately house incoming freshman for the next year or so, but with a rapidly-growing student body, the university would need to begin new construction soon.
“We want to open a discussion on our facilities needs,” Bailey said. “The new students are going to come fast and furious.”
Elmo Cavin, interim president of the Tech Health Sciences Center and executive vice president for finance and administration, said it could take about eight months to find a permanent president for the university.
“It’s a difficult assignment,” he said. “I still have my day job as the CFO and then add to that the presidential duties. It’s an honor for me to hold both jobs.”
Cavin said a search firm, Academic Search Consultants Inc., was chosen by the board to serve as a search party for a new Health Sciences Center president. Former Tech president Robert Lawless is a senior consultant in the firm and will serve as the principal search consultant. The anticipated cost to hire the search firm is $80,000.
“You want to make sure you don’t rush it,” he said, “and make sure you get the best candidate selected whose chemistry blends well with Texas Tech.”
An item on the facilities committee agenda called for a construction project to develop a new Center for Security Studies at Angelo State University, a member university of the Tech System.
According to the agenda, the project is a cooperative agreement between Angelo State and the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a center for strategic languages and cultural training.
Joseph Rallo, president of Angelo State University, said part of the program would be in conjunction with Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo and would help to build linguistic and cultural fluency of Air Force officers in the program.
Rallo said the board approved the item and will provide $4.2 million to develop the infrastructure and curriculum of the program.
The Tech Board of Regents meet again Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.
