COLUMBUS — As state support for higher education continues to dry up, Ohio State University is preparing to construct its largest campus building largely with other sources, including federal dollars.

        The $145 million Biomedical Research Tower is meant to push Ohio State into an elite league of research universities.

        “It just seemed that we were not going to be able to build this building in a reasonable time frame if we waited for the state,” OSU President William Kirwan said.

        “We've taken it upon ourselves to put together the strategy so we can move ahead with this building and create the space necessary to continue our moment.”
       

Funds tapped

        The tower, to be constructed on the west side of campus at the OSU Medical Center, will be funded with a combination of private donations, federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, money set aside for biomedical research from the state's settlement with major tobacco companies and internal OSU funds.

        The 10-story building is projected to open by late 2006 and will nearly double the space OSU can donate to biomedical research.

        The project, spearheaded by Fred Sanfilippo, dean of OSU's College of Medicine, also involves hiring more than 100 additional medical faculty members above the current total of about 600.

        The old model of university construction funding, waiting for years for a turn at state dollars, couldn't have worked for this project, said Caroline Whitacre, the College of Medicine's vice dean of research.

        “Other medical centers are building new facilities,” Ms. Whitacre said Wednesday. “To be able to attract researchers we have to be able to offer them state-of-the-art facilities and to retain the outstanding researchers we have already we have to have outstanding facilities to put them in.”

        Mr. Kirwan, who is leaving Ohio State for a similar post at the University of Maryland next month, said improving research space became a major priority soon after he arrived in 1998.

        At that time, he was presented with a report that said the university's research facilities were woefully small compared to other major universities, he said.

        “To realize our aspirations in this area, we needed a significant increase in our research space,” Mr. Kirwan said Tuesday. “You need some talented faculty and you need some space for them to work.”

        One impediment to using state construction dollars was the time it takes to get funding for a project, Mr. Kirwan said.
       

State straits

        “The other impediment was the size of the capital budget in Ohio for higher education,” he said. “If it's compared to what other major states are investing in universities and academic facilities, it's very modest.”

        Ohio's public colleges and universities received about $540 million in the state's most recent two-year construction budget.

        Senate President Richard Finan agreed with Mr. Kirwan that the state's capital budget can't be the major source of university funding for such projects.

        “If the higher education community thinks there's going to be big potfuls of money in the general revenue fund or the capital budget, you haven't been paying attention to the General Assembly and what our commitments are,” Mr. Finan said Wednesday.

        Last fall, higher education's budget was cut by $120 million.

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