DENVER – Colorado lawmakers have denied Fort Lewis College more than $25 million to construct a much-needed expansion of Whalen Gymnasium, which has already cost the college millions as part of a plan to bolster its popular health and exercise sciences program.
“We’d hate to see that go to waste,” said Steve Schwartz, vice president of finance and administration at FLC.
The college must now secure its own funding for the expansion. Without it, the college says it won’t be able to support one of its fastest-expanding programs, exercise science, which has overcrowded classrooms and limited facilities. The expanded gym would house the programs and was expected to attract new students and faculty. It was also anticipated as an asset for a region where trained health professionals are in dire need.
Last summer, college officials had been bracing for an anticipated nearly 10 percent decrease in enrollment for the 2018-19 academic year. But enrollment numbers held steady because of a higher number of Native American students who receive a tuition waiver that is reimbursed to the college by the state.
The budget decision comes as quarterly economic forecasts for Colorado show a future slowdown and as general fund estimates for the next three years have fallen by hundreds of millions of dollars. The economic outlook has imperiled other legislative priorities, like Gov. Jared Polis’ pledge to fund full-day kindergarten, as well as much-needed extra funds for the state’s transportation budgets. FLC’s Whalen project is just another casualty of the adjusted revenue forecasts, Schwartz said.
But the wrangling over Colorado’s budget is just getting started, and there is a chance that priorities will shift. The so-called “long bill” – the entire state budget – is expected to be introduced March 25, beginning a long process of approval as it works its way through both chambers and to Polis’ desk.
On Monday, the powerful Joint Budget Committee awarded more than $178 million to projects from Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Denver and Front Range Community College, according to legislative documents. But it stopped short of funding FLC’s project as well as a health sciences center for Colorado Mesa University.
FLC’s request for Whalen was among the most expensive project requests submitted last year to the Capital Development Committee, a legislative committee that prioritizes project funding requests for the Joint Budget Committee. For months, the Whalen project has been at the top of lawmakers’ priority list, Schwartz said, but the project’s ranking plummeted with each layer of the budget approval process.
In November, Whalen’s expansion was fourth on the Colorado Department of Higher Education’s project list. As the list of priorities made its way through the governor’s office and Capital Development, Whalen fell to sixth, 14th and then 15th on the list.
This week, the project’s fate changed in a matter of hours: On Monday morning, the Capital Development Committee recommended that the state fund the list’s top 15 projects; by that evening, the JBC decided it would fund only the top 12 projects.
Whalen gym is home to basketball, volleyball and other indoor athletic events, as well the exercise science program. Initially, FLC had envisioned a $57.5 million, two-phase, multi-year plan to expand Whalen Gymnasium from 47,000 square feet to 121,000 square feet.
rhandy@durangoherald.com
