SPRINGFIELD - Surrounded by stakeholders and SIU-C faculty and students, Governor JB Pritzker announced the release of $8.3 million to begin renovation and expansion of the Communications Building at SIUC at an event on campus today. This funding will begin the design phase for the estimated$83 million projects to build a state-of-the-art Communications Building at SIU-C. Funding for the project was included in the bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital plan, the most robust capital plan in Illinois history and the first in nearly a decade.
“I’m so proud to announce that we are launching the renovation and expansion of the Communications Building here at SIU-C,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This state-of-the-art facility will train thousands of students for jobs in media and communications with the best equipment and facilities we can provide. The students who learn at this facility won’t just be prepared to meet the needs of the media industry of the future — they’ll be prepared to lead it into its next phase, prioritizing the values that led them to the field in the first place.”
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The project will extensively remodel the 229,050 square foot building, and add approximately 60,000 square feet of space to support interdisciplinary learning. In addition to the infrastructure improvements and equipment upgrades in the current building, the addition will provide new classroom space, fully equipped and flexible auditorium space, laboratory rooms, digital post-production suites, and reflect the growing trend toward media convergence in a combined broadcast-print newsroom. The University received $4.3 million in planning funds for the project in fiscal year 2010. The building, constructed in 1964, currently houses the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts as well as theater and speech communications, WSIU and the Daily Egyptian student newspaper.
The historic Rebuild Illinois capital plan passed with bipartisan supermajorities and will invest $45 billion in roads, bridges, railways, universities, early childhood centers and broadband over the next six years, creating and supporting an estimated 540,000 jobs over the life of the plan and revitalizing local economies across the state.
SIU is also undertaking $3.1 million in state-funded maintenance repairs on campus, including $1.25 million for roof repairs and $1.85 million to replace water lines that range in age from 40 to 100 years old.
