BLINN BOARD APPROVES APPLICATIONS FOR CAMPUS RENOVATIONS
The Blinn College Board of Trustees Tuesday night authorized the administration to spend an additional $300,000 on renovations, and approved the purchase of a new parking management system for the Bryan campus.
In January, the Board allocated $4.5 million for the second phase of campus renovations to expand classroom, office and student study and lounge space on the Bryan campus, including renovation of the campus Administration Building to house a campus bookstore, campus president’s office, police department and other functions, renovation of space in the Bookstore Building into multi-use space, a coffee shop and a student lounge.
Also approved by the Board were upgrades to the Student Center to expand visual and performing arts use, as well as student activity and food service space, renovation of the existing advising and counseling area in the Science Building for faculty and staff offices, and energy efficiency upgrades such as the replacement of light fixtures and ballasts.
Final bids on the project were received April 7, totaling $4.8 million. The increase will pay for HVAC improvements as well as paving, circulation and dock improvements required at the new campus bookstore location that were originally scheduled for a later phase of the project.
Last November, the board authorized the issuance and sale of $10 million in bonds to fund a series of campus improvement projects. The renovations began last Fall, as Blinn moved its Admissions & Records, Enrollment Services, Financial Aid, Academic Advising and Veterans Services offices to the Tejas Center, creating a one-stop shopping location for students. With these services relocated, the second phase of construction began last month and is scheduled to be completed in August.
The third phase of the project will include parking and traffic flow improvements on the Bryan campus.
The board also authorized the $236,000 purchase of a parking management system that will allow Blinn students to pay by the hour in one of 150 premium spaces on the Bryan campus. The system, which would be in place beginning in the Fall semester, would give part-time students the option to forego the purchase of a permit. Blinn currently plans to utilize the system only on the Bryan campus.
The Trustees were also given an update on the status of Bills in the Texas Legislature specific to Blinn College. Among these include:
HB 1903 by Representative John Raney, relating to the distribution of funds to campuses in the Blinn College District has been voted on favorable as substituted by the House Higher Ed Committee on April 15, and has been sent to calendars. The bill substitute exempts campuses with fewer than 1000 students.
HB 2621 by Representative John Raney, relating to the board of trustees of the Blinn Junior College District, has been referred to the House Higher Ed Committee on March 16. No Movement.
SB 2042, by Senators Lois Kolkhorst and Charles Schwertner, relating to the board of trustees of the Blinn College District, was given permission to introduce, granted on April 13, has been referred to the Senate Higher Education Committee on April 13.
The Board also accepted the resignation of Carolyn D Miller, Trustee at-large Position 1 after reading a brief resignation letter left to Board President Doug Borchardt. The letter was brief, only noting that she and the Board “no longer see eye to eye,” and that was she was resigning. The Board remarked that Miller was a “champion of preparedness”, and that they would miss her being on the Board.
As this article notes, the Board of Trustees has been working toward fixing problems on the Bryan Campus, so what is the real purpose of the bill by Raney. Is it to block the development of the new Bryan west campus? Keep everything on the east side of Bryan? A lot of people of color and poor people live on the west side of Bryan. Is that what he is aiming to stop? Do the Blinn Bryan employees think they will get a whopping big raise with that money? That can’t happen without the Board’s approval. I don’t understand it. But I think it is so unfair. Blinn in Bryan has had phenomenal group in the last few years, and there is no way that any organization could keep up with that. As this article states, the Board is working toward that.
I wonder what the truth is about how money is distributed on all of the Blinn campuses. I was thinking one night that past president, Don Voelter, always liked Blinn to be in the black, which might meant that in those years when he was president, decisions were made so that Bryan would have some of Brenham’s assets (distance education) and Brenham had some of Bryan’s bills (library fund, the salaries of Brenham instructors who taught distance education [which are many, maybe half of all distant ed instructors are in Brenham], Bryan gets all of the contact hours from distance education, etc.). Will the Board be criticized when Bryan doesn’t have the money they think they are getting?
I wish Miller all the best, but let’s be honest, she was the CHAIR of the BUDGET COMMITTEE. And Raney and Bryan are complaining about their budget? I would like to know what budgets did the people in Bryan request in the past, especially the division chairs and the Bryan Campuses President.