The University of Colorado Board of Regents approved a new 10-year facility plan for its Colorado Springs campus during its February meeting.

The first plan of this kind for UCCS since 2012, it is the culmination of meetings with stakeholders and campus participants to establish long-range planning for architecture, land use, space use, transportation and utilities, according to a university statement.

The plan establishes a framework to guide future developments and does not guarantee any funding.

Potential renovations include upgrades to the Kraemer family library, the university center’s plaza, Columbine Hall, the school’s engineering and applied science building and all existing residence halls.

A new academic building at the parking lot south of Centennial Hall, a new residence hall to expand housing to meet future demands and new storage facilities were among the additions discussed.

The master plan can be viewed in its entirety here.

Budget discussions

During the same meeting, UCCS presented three general fund scenarios to the board for the university’s 2025-26 academic year. One scenario comes from Gov. Jared Polis’ state budget proposal while all three scenarios include tuition increases for resident and nonresident undergraduate students and increases to merit, wage compression, retention and equal pay.

In the governor’s proposal, overall funding to the CU system and state funding for higher education would be reduced by 0.1%. For UCCS, $2.8 million in funding for its cybersecurity programs and the rural health initiative for student scholarships also would be eliminated.

Total reductions to UCCS in this scenario would be 6.4% or approximately a $3.3 million drop in state support.

During the meeting, UCCS Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet noted the difficult decision in potentially cutting the cybersecurity program, given the role it fills in Colorado’s higher-education portfolio and job sector.

“There’s over 16,000 vacant jobs that need to be filled across Colorado in cybersecurity alone,” she said. “And, so, the fact that we’re the leader of that in that in higher education in the entire state in providing that workforce and economic development in southern Colorado, it’s really tough to see that this could go away because of state budget cuts.”

The second and third scenarios presuppose funding increases along with tuition increases.

In each scenario a budget gap exists, since costs continue to increase at higher rates than projected revenues, resulting in required budget cuts for mandatory expenses such as utilities, inflation, insurance and funding choices like merit pay.

Fund balancing for next year also will include operating reductions, eliminating both vacant and filled positions and combining positions as needed.