UMass Amherst Eyes up to $700 Million From State Building Bill

University of Massachusetts Amherst officials told student senators on Oct. 7 that the campus hopes to draw as much as $700 million from a pending state higher education construction bill, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian reported.

Tilman Wolf, deputy chancellor for operational and organizational strategies, presented the university's capital planning to the Student Government Association at its meeting in the Cape Cod Lounge. The BRIGHT Act would release $2.5 billion for capital infrastructure projects at Massachusetts universities over 10 years, with $1.25 billion going to the UMass system. The House and Senate have passed different versions, which await reconciliation before the bill reaches Gov. Maura Healey.

Distribution within the UMass system has not been set. Wolf said UMass Amherst is seeking "somewhere in the order of five, six, maybe seven hundred million dollars." The money is aimed at cutting deferred maintenance and carbon emissions.

Wolf outlined 10 project options. They include demolishing Bartlett Hall and Machmer Hall and building a new classroom building on the Bartlett site, a visitor center on the site of Draper Hall, and work on Tobin Hall, Memorial Hall, Morrill Science Center, the Lederle Graduate Research Center and the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

The funds would go to academic and general-purpose buildings rather than housing, which the university is pursuing through public-private partnerships, Wolf said. He cited declining Northeast enrollment in defending the visitor center proposal.

This story was first reported by Massachusetts Daily Collegian.