GRAND FORKS - The State Board of Higher Education Budget and Finance Committee approved requests to spend more money on the University of North Dakota’s new School of Medi cine and Health Sciences building and Law School renovation.
At a meeting Monday, the committee approved spending about $1.3 million more on the med school and about $505,000 more on the law school. The SBHE as a whole will consider the request at their next meeting in October.
The med school increase is to cover finishing a parking lot, landscaping, and several design elements on the building. It would then cost $123.7 million in total.
The Law School increase would go toward various construction expenses and cost about $14.4 million in total.
The money will come out of the SBHE’s contingency fund allocated by the Legislature during the last session.
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North Dakota University System Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs Laura Glatt said the Legislature appropriated 95 percent of the money requested by campuses during the last session and allocated the remaining 5 percent into the contingency fund for schools to access through board appropriation.
Glatt said the increases currently being asked for by UND are due to increasing construction costs as the projects take a long time to go from acquiring an estimate to actually breaking ground.
