With the American financial markets turning to mush and worry spreading about how the crisis will affect state and federal budgets, fundraising, and enrollment, colleges are reconsidering the most expensive undertakings on their campuses: construction and renovation projects. As previously reported on Buildings & Grounds, Boston University has announced a freeze on building. In Colorado, where state institutions are often hurting for money, Gov. Bill Ritter called for a similar freeze on all state-supported construction projects — a freeze that may affect several planned projects in the University of Colorado system. And Russell K. Osgood, president of Grinnell College, one of the country’s wealthiest liberal-arts colleges, said recently in The Chronicle that plans for a $135-million library renovation may go on hold. Colleges have been on a building spree for the past decade or so, but many say that they still need to build more. Many institutions also have tremendous challenges with deferred maintenance. The question now is, Will money be there to build and to repair? “I think there will be a definite slowdown,” says Harvey H. Kaiser, a campus-construction consultant. Over the past decade, a lot of colleges have already dumped money into construction and maintenance — and not always wisely, he says. “So many institutions looked at their need for deferred maintenance and new buildings, and the wisdom was: ‘Let’s look at our bala ...
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