Dear faculty and staff,
I want to report back to you on the 2020 Project update I gave this morning at the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco. As I explained in my note to you earlier this week, this was an informational session to bring the Regents up to speed on the scope of the project and the strategy we’re proposing to deliver the project as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
I was encouraged by the many expressions of support I received for our campus and our special mission here in the San Joaquin Valley. The Regents fully understand the challenges of building a new campus in the 21st century and show great enthusiasm and respect for what we’ve accomplished to date.
What concerned several of the Regents about our project is that we don’t yet have detailed estimates of its cost or the impact it will have on the system’s overall debt structure. This is because we haven’t yet begun the Request for Proposals phase of our project, where this information will be generated as part of the competitive bidding process. We expect to begin the RFP phase this spring.
I assured the Regents that the strategy we’re pursuing promises significant savings of both time and money compared with traditional UC development projects. Indeed, it is designed to provide the competing development teams with strong incentives and flexibility to manage costs and limit the amount of debt incurred.
While my assurances were sufficient for now, we will need to provide another update in September with additional detail we may have at that time. Clearly this is an issue the Regents want to understand fully, and should understand, before approving the final proposal we plan to present next spring.
In a separate action, the Board approved funding to begin design work on the Downtown Center, the administrative building complex that will serve as the hub of our off-campus operations in downtown Merced. The center will be built on land purchased last year at the corner of N and 18th streets, directly across from City Hall.
I will keep you posted on any new developments. More information on the 2020 Project can be found on its website.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
