Facilities Development Plan - The University of Nebraska Kearney

Facilities Development Plan
The UNK 2006 Facilities Development Update
has renewed campus discussion of our current
situation, needs, and opportunities, and it
outlines use concepts that align with present
strategic assessments and plans. As part of
UNK’s overall strategic planning process, it
will be reviewed regularly to ensure it refl ects
our actual circumstances, progress, vision, and
prospects.
As we go forward with this iterative and
collaborative planning process, we derive a
great deal of confi dence from the history of our
development both as a state college and within
the university. In the large, here are major
examples of what history indicates that UNK
leaders have accomplished, through planning.
The physical setting of the main campus
has evolved from a tract of land divided into
city blocks into an expansive, tree-lined,
residential, academic village with buildings
and grounds that are fully consistent with
our status as an arboretum and with our
Platte Valley surroundings.
We have made substantial progress in
renewing and modernizing our academic
infrastructure. Ten years ago the
West Center, housing UNK’s business
programs and UNMC’s nursing program,
was outdated and unsuited to modern
instruction. Today, it is an educational
showcase. A decade ago departments
composing the College of Education were
scattered in buildings from one end of the
campus to the other. Today, the College has
its own completely modern, dedicated stateof-the-art
facility. While we plan a large
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2006 - 2015
renovation and expansion for Bruner Hall,
we have already added two new research
facilities adjacent to the old building which
consists of a new greenhouse and an animal
research lab.
The Nebraskan Student Union a decade
ago was small and insuffi cient by
today’s university standards and student
expectations. Today, it is an expanded,
fully modernized facility that has literally
changed the way students, employees, and
community members use the heart of our
campus.
Foster Field in the mid-1990’s was
essentially unchanged from the grass fi eld
and running track that were in place fi fty
years earlier. Today, the expanded Cope
Memorial Stadium complex provides a
year-round sports and recreational facility
for intercollegiate competitions, for general
recreational uses, and for local school and
community uses as well.
We have begun a substantial renewal of
our on-campus residential establishment
– a key part of UNK’s mission within the
University of Nebraska.
We have acquired new properties that
enable us to develop new thinking about
further advancements serving the University
and our community.
CHAPTER 1