News Release

U of M President Eric Kaler responds to Minnesota Capital Investment Bill

May 21, 2018

Today, University of Minnesota President Eric W. Kaler responded to the Capital Investment Bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature.

"We sincerely thank the members of the Minnesota Legislature for their continued investment in the University of Minnesota and our students, faculty and staff,” said University of Minnesota President Eric W. Kaler. “The recently passed Capital Investment Bill—pending Governor Dayton's signature to become law—provides several key investments that will advance our mission of educating and serving the citizens of the State of Minnesota. With these investments, we can move ahead with important projects that will renew some of our oldest facilities and strengthen our impact across the state.”

The investments for the University of Minnesota in the Capital Investment Bill are:

$45 million in Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement funding. These dollars, invested across the University system, will maintain buildings and infrastructure in order to train, serve and educate students, faculty and staff for generations to come.
$24 million in funding, which will be matched by $12 million from the University, to completely renew Pillsbury Hall. This building, one of the oldest and most iconic on the Twin Cities campus, will become home to the English Department.
$6.4 million for projects remodeling outdated spaces on both the Morris and Crookston campuses to support new student studying and learning spaces.
$4 million in funding for the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth. This money will be used for critical repairs to support the more than 140,000 guests who visit the museum each year.

In addition, the Capital Investment Bill includes investments from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) totaling approximately $15 million for important environment and natural resource projects at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Morris and Twin Cities campuses, addressing topics like aquatic invasive species, wildlife health threats and improving water quality.

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