Lack of funding delays law school construction at Carolina North

Construction for three buildings at Carolina North remains on hold, due to a lack of state funding.

University officials updated the public on the progress of UNC’s first satellite campus at a meeting last week.

UNC has planned four projects for Carolina North’s initial stage — including a research building, Collaborative Science Building, residential housing and a new law school. The University plans to begin construction of the Collaborative Science Building in June 2013.

Jack Boger, dean of the School of Law, said in 2008, $15 million was appropriated to fund planning and infrastructure of the new law school.

He said Gov. Bev Perdue withdrew the money as a result of the beginning of the recession and state budget cuts.

The research building and residential housing building also lack the funding to begin construction.

The University has stalled beginning construction of the new law school until the economy improves and revenue becomes available again.

“It could happen if there was a miracle donor,” said Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning.

Boger said a new building for the school is badly needed.

He said that when the current law school was built, class sizes were typically large, about 80 to 120 students.

Since then, class sizes have dramatically decreased as classes have become more specialized with closer professor-student interaction, particularly for the second and third year law school classes.

“We have a building that was built with one … configuration in mind, and we’ve got a very different form of instructional delivery now,” Boger said.

Work on a utilities ductbank has forced parts of the Pumpkin Loop running trail to be closed for safety reasons.

Anna Wu, director for facilities planning, said those parts of the running trail will be temporarily reopened for the annual Pumpkin Run in October. The trail will permanently reopen in late fall or early winter.

Officials also discussed realigning the site’s conservation areas.

“The conservation areas were realigned to increase the ecological value of the acreage that we agreed to set aside,” Wu said.

Residents have expressed concern about how the construction will affect traffic on and around Estes Drive.

Runberg said the University plans to study the problem.

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