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UNK Welcomes NCA

Chapter 4: Criterion Two

The institution has effectively organized the human, financial, and
physical resources necessary to accomplish its purposes.

Physical Resources

Buildings and Grounds

Overview. UNK owns just under 258 acres of land in Kearney, with the main campus on 127.59 acres of land on the city's west side. Across Highway 30 on the west end of campus, the institution owns 103.52 acres that are currently leased-out as farmland. Adjacent to the farmland is the Nebraska Center for Safety Education and Research, which occupies 11.62 acres. One mile north of the main campus, UNK owns University Heights, a 10 acre apartment complex for married students and students over 21. The final 5.23 acres are the Westlake property, which is located north of campus on the edge of Kearney Lake and provides a natural habitat for field studies by UNK's biology department.

Forty-three buildings comprise the UNK campus, with a total of 1,794,017 gross square feet. These totals do not include the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) and the Alumni House, which UNK does not own. The University of Nebraska system classifies buildings as either state-aided buildings or "revenue bond" (auxiliary) buildings. Thirteen residence halls, the Memorial Student Affairs building, and the Nebraskan Student Union comprise the revenue bond buildings. The estimated replacement cost for all campus buildings, as of December of 2002, totaled $206.2 million, with $117.4 for state-aided buildings and $88.8 million for revenue bond buildings.

Management of Facilities. The Office of Facilities Management and Planning, which reports to the Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance, oversees operation and maintenance of state-aided buildings and grounds. This office also is responsible for maintenance of all heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for the entire campus. The Office of Residential and Greek Life (ORL), which reports to the Dean of Students, is responsible for light maintenance and custodial care of the revenue bond buildings. The Office of Facilities Management and Planning, however, is responsible for major maintenance, electrical, or plumbing projects on both state-owned and revenue bond buildings.

Major Construction

Recent Projects.

UNK has completed six major construction projects in the last ten years that have made major improvements to the campus. The following paragraphs summarize these projects.

Current Projects.

Maintenance and Repair

State-Aided Buildings. Much of UNK's funding for maintenance and repair comes from transfers from the Task Force for Building Renewal, which is a division of the State of Nebraska's Division of Administrative Services. UNK uses the Task Force's categorization of projects as Fire/Life Safety, Deferred Maintenance, ADA, and Energy Conservation. For most projects, UNK must match Task Force funds with internal funds. For each of these project types, the Task Force has three levels of severity, from Class I for most severe to Class III for least severe. As of February 2003, UNK's backlog of projects in all of these categories totaled $57.8 million. The table below shows the distribution of projects by type and class.

Table 4.8

  Category   Class   Total  
    I   II   III     
               
  Fire & Life-Safety   $ 2,520,000   $ 6,781,000   $ 684,000   $ 9,985,000  
  Deferred Maintenance   5,836,000   17,332,500   2,262,000   25,430,500  
  Americans with Disabilities   1,045,000   164,000   236,000   1,445,000  
  Energy Conservation   69,000   20,820,000   103,000   20,992,000  
               
  Totals   $ 9,470,000   $ 45,097,500   $ 3,285,000   $ 57,852,500    
 

Revenue Bond Buildings. UNK funds maintenance and repair for revenue bond buildings from auxiliary funds. These projects are not subject to funding approval by the Task Force for Building Renewal. As a result, UNK's categorization of these projects is different from the categorization of projects for state-supported buildings. The estimated cost of the backlog of maintenance and repair projects for revenue bond buildings is $44.7 million. The list of these projects is available in the resource room.

Strengths

UNK's campus has undergone numerous improvements in the last decade that enhanced the institution. The strengths for state-funded buildings are as follows:

The strengths for the revenue-bond buildings are as follows:

Weaknesses

The weaknesses of UNK's physical plant are as follows:


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