Bowling Green State University is investing in state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure upgrades.
When the board of trustees met Thursday, members approved improvements to campus, including updating the current Technology Building and improving the information technology network infrastructure.
Ahead of the university’s launch of three engineering degrees, trustees approved additions and renovations for the Technology Building. The building will be named the Technology Engineering Innovation Center when work is complete. The renovated building will include state-of-the-art classroom space, featuring cutting-edge technology for experimental learning, according to a university press release.
According to information provided by the university, the Technology Building was built on the northern most corner of campus in 1971 as the Industrial Education and Technology Building, originally housing programs for manufacturing, cybernetics, product design and development, and imaging.
The building currently contains offices for the College of Technology, Architecture, and Applied Engineering, visual communication technology labs, engineering labs, and general classroom lecture spaces. After initially considering demolishing and replacing the entire existing building, a reimagining exercise prompted campus leaders to reconsider the initial plans and conclude that the overall building structure is sound.
The new programs in the School of Engineering create an immediate need for additional dedicated technical labs that cannot be accommodated in the existing building footprint. The proposed project will include selective demolition of the existing building’s east wing’s southern facade and an expanded footprint to the south to create the engineering labs to support the programmatic requirements. Additionally, the project will include a complete upgrade to the STEM corridor infrastructure feeding into the building systems, energy conservation measures connecting the building to the central chilled water line, electrical load upgrades, heat plant controls, and security features for the new addition.
The estimated cost of the project is $30 million, with $4.1 million in donor funds and $20.2 million in state capital funds with the university funding the balance.
Construction is expected to begin this fall and be completed in the spring of 2026.
Beginning this fall, BGSU will offer three engineering programs in robotics engineering, electronic and computer engineering and mechanical and manufacturing engineering.
The board also approved the first of five construction phases to update the university’s current IT network infrastructure, which has been in place for nearly 25 years.
The first phase of IT upgrades will include maintenance on components in Hayes Hall, the Wolfe Center and other select buildings in that section of campus. Work is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2025.
“You are walking around with a phone that is a more powerful computer than probably most of what ran across this network in 1999. Everything that you today, personal or professional, will require you to either connect to Wi-Fi or a network in some way,” said Sherideen Stoll, chief financial officer and vice president, finance and administration at BGSU. “Think about how many times a day you Google something. Everything from a phone number, GPS, and more. There’s nothing you do that doesn’t require a dependable network. Our network started in 1999 and it has been remarkably stable. It has done everything we asked of it (and probably more).”
When completed, the network will feature uninterrupted, redundant access, self-healing capabilities and more efficient traffic management. The project is set to be completed over a 12-year period.
The cost of the project is $10.5 million with funding from state capital appropriations.
“We must start replacing a lot of those core pieces of hardware that manage our traffic, so that traffic can go faster. If we were to have an issue with access off-campus, we can still access the internet because it will be fully redundant,” Stoll said. “There are things that exist today with hardware that can add security to help us better protect our network. None of that existed in 1999.”
The board also approved spending $3.9 million to expand and replace the campus cooling system; an administrative fee revision to parking fees, adjusting rates by $5 for faculty, staff and students for fiscal year 2025.
The next board meeting will take place on September 27.
