Facilities Development Plan - The University of Nebraska Kearney

CHAPTER 5: Facilities Development
Plan Concepts & Recommendations
Overview
Goals that have guided this facilities
development plan are fundamentally the same
as the goals that shaped UNK’s 1997 Facilities
Master Plan.
1. To provide our people with the highest
quality learning, teaching, and research
environment.
2. To encourage a greater sense of community
among all students, faculty, and staff.
3. To maintain the highest standards while
developing facilities, image, and resources,
and to conserve those resources while
devoting particular attention to: (a) the
health, safety, and welfare of our people;
(b) the current and potential aesthetic and
environmental qualities of our community;
(c) effi cient and economical location,
construction, and operation of facilities
and supporting infrastructure; and (d)
development of technological capabilities to
enhance both academic and administrative
service.
Under that guidance, since 1997 we have
undertaken a number of initiatives to achieve
specifi c objectives with respect to land use,
buildings and facilities, circulation, outdoor
space, and utilities. These have included the
following:
We consolidated elements of the College of
Education in a new state-of-the-art facility.
CHAPTER 5
We comprehensively renovated the West
Center.
We modernized and expanded the
Nebraskan Student Union.
We completed fi rst renovation phases in the
Bruner Hall of Science and Otto Olsen.
We developed the Spillway Park and built
the Main Street Bridge over the Canal.
We developed Foster Field into Cope Stadium,
a multi-use recreation and sports facility.
Other projects are now underway, including an
expansion and renovation of the Bruner Hall
of Science and the establishment of a modern
central utilities system. Time and resource
constraints have, of course, importantly
determined our development agenda over
the last ten years, in ways that the 1997 plan
did not anticipate. We have also benefi ted
from infusion of new resources (e.g., LB 605,
donations, and renewed bonding capacity)
that gave us options and opportunities not
specifi cally envisioned in the 1997 plan.
Now, looking ahead, our circumstances have
changed, in large part because of the progress
we have made in implementing our 1997 plan.
As we go forward to achieve enduring goals,
our current vision has the following new initiatives:
We have acquired substantial western
farmland property that may be appropriate
for uses formerly envisioned for land closer
or adjacent to campus. Concepts for such
use might include joint UNK/community
projects and could develop within the next
few years.
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