New campus in need of temporary site

By Melissa Prentice

Arizona Daily Wildcat

The temporary location for the new four-year campus is too large and too expensive to call home Ä at least for now.

The 120,000-square-foot former IBM facility on South Rita Road would be too expensive to heat and cool for only 10 occupants, said Celestino Fernandez, executive vice president and provost of the campus. Only he and his immediate staff will be transferring to the new campus right away.

The facility was purchased last year by the Arizona Board of Regents to temporarily house the new campus and to serve as a research park for the University of Arizona.

Fernandez said the campus, which is scheduled to begin classes in fall 1996, will be housed at one of three possible locations: in the current structures at the IBM facility, on vacant land at the facility, or at a downtown location as proposed by Mayor George Miller.

But Fernandez said the staff is seeking an even more temporary location for the next 18 months of planning. The staff plans to move from the UA administration building "as soon as another location can be found.

"We are anxious to get settled and the space is needed by others here," Fernandez said.

John Kissler, Fernandez's special assistant, said the search is not focused on a particular area of town. The only qualification for a location is that there is "minimal space for offices and conference rooms" and that the location would be more cost effective than the IBM facility, he said.

Basic maintenance costs at the IBM facility would cost $200,000 per year. The total budget for the college is $1.5 million, which includes salaries for Fernandez and the other members of the planning team.

When professors and other staff members are hired, locating at the new campus will become more cost-effective, Fernandez said.

Fernandez said that without advertising any positions, he has already received resum‚s from faculty and staff at the UA and 10 other campuses. Kissler said no major hiring will be done before July 1995.

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