ISU seeking $66M for technology building renovation

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — The Indiana State University Board of Trustees approved a plan on Friday to request $66 million to renovate and expand the more than 40-year-old Technology Annex Building on the Terre Haute campus. The funding would be considered as part of the biennial budget from the Indiana General Assembly in next year’s legislative session.

The university says the project would modernize space in the building, which was built in 1980, to create a Center for Technology Engineering & Design. It will include a two-story, 30,000-square-foot addition, as well as the demolition of about 17,000 square feet of space.

ISU says interior improvements to the adjacent Myers Technology Center are also planned.

“For Indiana to compete on a global scale, it needs a strong, well-educated, and highly skilled workforce,” ISU President Deborah Curtis said in written remarks. “This institutional priority is in complete alignment with the state’s goals. With our incredible record of serving the state, ISU will work hard to use this investment to make Indiana even more competitive and prosperous. And, in the long run, our fellow citizens throughout the state will greatly benefit.”

The board also approved naming the Nursing Skills Lab at the College of Health and Human Services after Rich and Robin Porter, who gifted $300,000 to the university to establish the Rich and Robin Porter Endowed Master’s in Nursing Scholarship.

Rich Porter is graduated from ISU with a degree in business management and is the chair of the ISU Foundation Board of Directors. The couple previously donated $250,000 to create the Rich & Robin Porter Cancer Research Center on the ISU campus.