On Tuesday the Wichita State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved a bond issue that will provide funding for a new building that will house the Elliott School of Communication. The refinancing of a $19,005,000 bond issue includes almost $2.9 million toward the new building. Other funding for the building projected to cost nearly $4.2 million will come from private gifts, fundraising and existing cash and pledges.

Oliver Elliott, a WSU alumni who pledged a $7.2 million deferred gift to the Elliott School three years ago, said he was pleased by the Board’s vote.

Vernon Keel, Director of the Elliott School, and Elliott agree that they are not prepared to get their hopes up yet. They’ve both been waiting for funding for a new building for nearly three years.

The bond issue must be approved by the Board of Regents next month.

That will be the biggest hurdle, Elliott said.

“They are trying to hold the line on spending money.”

However, he said, “The fact is, we deserve to be the leader in communications. Where are the biggest TV stations, newspaper and advertising agencies? In Wichita.”

Other projects that will be financed with the bond issue include $233,000 for improvement in the Ulrich Museum. Also, an estimated $50,000 may be used to purchase property at 17th and Vassar currently owned by the Phi Delta Theta. Another fraternity may be interested in buying the property, but if they don’t, the university will consider a bid. If the $50,000 is not used for the property purchase, it may be used for the Elliott School construction.

The interest rates of the old bond structure Series E, 1987 and Series F, 1988 averaged 8.05 and 8.34 percent respectively. The new rate on the Series 1992 will average 6.78 percent and will have a slower debt increase.

No more than 40 percent of the mill levy revenue is expected to go toward the debt service. The remainder will go to program expenditures. The present value savings from the sale of the Series E and F bonds are expected to be about $400,000 but that figure is contingent upon the market conditions at the time of the sale. That money will go toward the Elliott School.

Faculty Senate members were divided about supporting the administration’s proposal for the bond issue.

Jay Mandt, faculty senate president, expressed concern about using mill levy bond money for university construction.

Mill levy money should be targeted to academic program activity for students and faculty, Mandt said.

But President Warren Armstrong disagreed.

“I think we are ill-served by making a distinction between support for academic programs and construction of facilities that support academic programs as though they were not in themselves in support of academics,” said Armstrong.

The building will be constructed northwest of Ahlberg Hall. A major consideration for that location was because no established parking would be lost.

Keel said he is pleased with the central location of the proposed building site.

The current building (Wilner Auditorium) is inadequate, inappropriate and unsafe, Keel said.

The Elliott School has about 400 undergraduates and 65 graduate students in the disciplines including journalism, public relations/advertising, speech and broadcast.

“The three guiding priorities that have guided the development of the Elliott school are people, programs, and facilities.

“We’ve assembled an excellent faculty in the two years I’ve been here,” Keel said. “It’s a combination of faculty that were already in place when I got here as well as 10 new faculty.”

“We have restructured requirements for graduate and undergraduate programs. We’ve established an undergraduate admissions requirement that begins in the fall of 1992 as well as higher admissions standards for graduate students.”