Appearances only part of ULM's progress
Originally published May 18, 2007 in The (Monroe, La.) News-Star
I am extremely proud when I speak with people in the community and they remark on the beauty of our campus. They inquire about our new residence halls and whether the halls will be filled. The answer is yes.
Our student housing, which includes new suite-style housing and several renovated halls, will be filled to capacity, although we can always accommodate an additional student, just as we did last year. The operating results for this year are not in, but the preliminary results indicate that we will continue to show positive financial results this year just like last year.
Full residence halls allow us to continue to show these positive results and we will very quickly amortize the cost of issuance of the bonds used to finance the improved facilities at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
It is easy to dwell on the beauty of the campus and our recent successes; however, as we conclude another year at the university, we are, as always, envisioning the future. This fall, ULM students will enjoy the new Intermodal Transit Facility, which will provide 285 parking spaces for students. To fund a portion of the $3.75 million facility, ULM, aided by U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, received a $2.7 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The remainder of the project is financed through ULM Facilities Inc., a private, not-for-profit affiliate of the university.
We're working on yet another parking venture, in addition to beautifying the entrances to our campus. During the summer months, we will transform the existing parking area along DeSiard Street into new, redesigned parking lots, providing safer entries and exits. The project includes adding a decorative iron fence and signage that will border the front of campus, and improving the existing landscaping and sidewalks. We are also proud to announce that, thanks to the efforts of local businessman Eddie Hakim, a new sign, made of brick and cast stone and surrounded by exquisite landscaping, marks an attractive entrance on Northeast Drive into the heart of campus.
In October, we will begin renovating the old WigWam dining facility into the Clarke M. Williams Student Success Center.
Since receiving an initial gift of $300,000 in 2002, we have raised additional private funding in the amount of $500,000 to assist in the completion of this project. Slated to open in August 2008, the student success center will ensure the achievement of every student from the minute they step onto our campus until the day they graduate.
The center will offer group study and counselor rooms, multi-media rooms, and perhaps most significant, 24-hour computer labs for our students who have to divide their time between work and study. Students will also benefit from a full-time advising staff available to assist them in planning their course loads, career explorations and also provide academic support services.
Another ongoing project vital to both ULM and the state of Louisiana is the College of Pharmacy's new Bienville Building, which the university administration purchased from State Farm Insurance and began renovating in 2006. Pharmacy staff, faculty and students recently moved into the three-story, 132,000-square-foot building, which contains four large SMART classrooms.
Two of those classrooms offer live interactive distance learning capabilities that will be used to connect the main campus classrooms with the college's satellite campuses in Shreveport and Baton Rouge. The building also offers a large Pharmacy Care laboratory that houses 48 workstations, a simulated pharmacy, a simulated hospital room, a patient education facility and a sterile products compounding area.
We recently began Phase II renovations, which include the construction of a new ULM Medicaid Office of Drug Evaluation and Outcomes Research, the Prior Authorization unit, the Disease Management program, and the college's research laboratories.
By 2008, we will have spent more than $90 million into campus improvement projects since 2002. That is a direct investment in our students and in northeastern Louisiana. These improvements in the physical infrastructure of the campus are but a small part of the renaissance at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.