Nearly $35 million could be headed Missouri Southern’s way for a renovation and addition to Reynolds Hall. The University requested the money last week at a Coordinating Board for Higher Education meeting in St. Louis in anticipation of growing programs and an influx of students in science programs. “All the classrooms, the labs, it all needs to be updated,” said Dr. Terri Agee, senior vice president. “We’ve got growing programs over there.”The environmental sciences program is expanding, biology, chemistry, things such as that,” Agee added. “With the [proposed] osteopathic school it’s logical. It’s going to naturally increase the demand for our undergraduate science programs and we need to anticipate that and prepare.”The addition could double the size of the building, but funding hinges on a key piece of legislation in Jefferson City. Rep. Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) has sponsored a resolution that could provide up to $700 million in bonds for capital improvement projects at Missouri colleges and universities. As Missouri approaches the end of the third state building fund, Kelly said the same revenue stream could be used to pay for the bond issue. He is encouraging Gov. Jay Nixon to call a special session of the legislature this fall for a vote on the resolution; if it passed, it would go to a statewide vote as early as April. “The needs of the schools are overwhelming,” Kelly said. “Every single one of these campuses, including Southern, has very, very significant capital needs. The bond issue would meet the number one priority at every issue at every school. The question is why do it now? We can borrow money now at an all-time low rate, so we can get the money cheaply. The contractors and subcontractors are all very hungry now so we can get extremely good bids on the buildings. “There are lots and lots of people out of work in the state and if we do this now we could put people back to work,” he added. “Both the idea of getting the buildings done inexpensively and getting people to work, this is precisely the right time to do it. Plus, we would pay a lower interest rate on part of the federal stimulus bill. We’d get some assistance from that if we act now.”Kelly said he has enough votes in the House to pass the resolution, and a majority in the Senate supports the bond issue, but the idea has been met with opposition from some. “It’s easy to be politically critical of it because you can talk about borrowing, but the borrowing would be a decision made by the people who pay the taxes,” he said. “The taxpayers and voters would decide and if they think it’s a good decision to borrow money over a long period of time to build classrooms and buildings at universities, that’s up to them.”If the resolution is not passed, or if the bond issue fails in a statewide vote, there would likely be no money available for capital improvement projects because of the state budget picture coming into focus for FY 2011. “There is no way there will be cash to build buildings without something like this,” said Paul Wagner, deputy commissioner for the Missouri Department of Higher Education. “There’s really nothing on the horizon to suggest the state is going to be able to build buildings without some funding mechanism like this.”If the bond issue is approved, money could start flowing as early as next fall. University President Bruce Speck said Kelly gave a fervent presentation to the CBHE last week, asking for everyone to get on board with the plan. Speck added that Reynolds Hall would be critical to the school when the proposed medical school opens in three years. “We’ll have an influx of students for the sciences,” he said. “Clearly we need new labs. The labs in there are functional, but old. Where I came from we had a brand new science building that cost about $30 million, and when I walked into this building it was kind of like going back to World War II.”It’s about that old.”