Four years after a fire gutted it, Lincoln University's Dickinson Research Center is on track to be rebuilt.
The Board of Curators on Thursday approved a construction contract with Curtiss-Manes-Schulte Inc. Construction of Eldon to build a 7,185-square-foot facility to replace the original building which caught fire in July 2015.
The curators Thursday discussed the project with LU Facilities Director Jeff Turner, who presented them with building renderings and updates for the center, located on the south side of campus near Chestnut Street and Leslie Boulevard.
The new building will include multiple research and teaching lab spaces, chemical storage and a classroom. There will also be greenhouses.
Turner said the new building will be an improvement over the old building, providing an open educational environment for students.
The building will be funded through a few different means; $2.2 million comes from a 1980 facilities grant, with another $1,910,145 from the fire loss fund, bringing the total funds available to a little more than $4.1 million.
The original bid for the building was $4,535,223. However, four items - the greenhouse, a walk-in cooler, generator and grow lights - were taken off of the construction costs and will be paid for using a different funding source, bringing the cost down to $3,690,223.
The other $845,000 will come from a research capacity fund.
In other action Thursday, the board approved a construction contract for the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension building in Sikeston.
The approximately 8,000-square-foot building will serve as a satellite extension office, including staff offices, three or four classrooms, a computer lab and multipurpose room.
Funding for the project will also come from the 1980 Facilities Grant Program, which focuses on enhancing agricultural and food sciences facilities and equipment; $2.4 million will come from the grant.
Two items totaling $20,000 from the bid will be deferred to a different funding source, bringing the cost of the building to $2.12 million. The contract will be with Boulder Construction, LLC.
Prior to work beginning on either project, approval will be needed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Also at the meeting, curators approved a proposal for a posthumous degree policy, awarding degrees after death to students nominated by the dean of the college or school in which the student was enrolled at or prior to the student's death.
To be nominated, students must have been in good academic standing and have been enrolled at the time of death or have an enrollment interrupted by circumstances such as illness or deployment. Undergraduate students must have been within 20 semester hours of degree requirements, and graduate students must have been within nine hours.
If the nomination is supported by the provost and president of the university, the registrar's office will award the posthumous degree to the deceased student, including a commencement recognition if the family chooses.
At Thursday's meeting the board also approved:
A revised fiscal year 2020 general operating budget totaling $37,118,157.
The purchase of six non-CDL buses for Cooperative Research and Extension.