It likely will take years before Slippery Rock University gets its full nine-figure request for capital projects.

This is because potential funding from the state system, which includes 13 other universities in Pennsylvania, has to jump through a long line of hoops before being sent to schools like SRU.

SRU, whose budget expenditures for 2024-25 reach $164 million, approved submitting a $120 million funding request to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education at the board of trustees’ March 21 meeting. However, parts of that money are allocated to be received into the 2030s.

The requested $120 million would be spent on four separate projects.

The biggest project, a renovation of the Morrow Field House, would cost $51.2 million.

Additional renovation funding would go toward the McKay and Eisenberg buildings, as well as the campus heating plant, though funding would not be granted until around 2030 for those projects.

Kevin Hensel, director of media relations for the state system, said any time a college wants to request capital project funding, it must follow a standardized process laid out by the state system’s board of governors.

The process includes a five-year capital plan put together by the system after receiving submissions from the universities. The state system’s board of governors has to approve the plan and then send it to the Pennsylvania General Assembly for final approval.

“Initially, a university submits a funding request to PASSHE. The chancellor’s office then reviews the project requests and puts together a five-year rolling capital plan for the system. The capital plan is taken to the board of governors for approval in October each year. Once a capital plan is approved by the board of governors, PASSHE forwards the projects to the commonwealth’s office of budget and department of general services,” Hensil said.

The General Assembly determines whether to authorize the projects and allocate funding, while the state Department of General Services oversees the design and construction of approved projects.

Universities in Pennsylvania would like to have the funding as soon as they can. But for officials at SRU, the reality is that the state system only has so much money to go around.

According to the state system’s annual appropriations request and accountability report, commonwealth capital funds are “spent largely on renovation or replacement of existing buildings and infrastructure.” The system received $70 million for capital funds for 2024-25.

“We would like the funding now. But the reality is that the commonwealth allocates about $70 million to PASSHE, and they try to divvy it up so each university is getting their fare share,” said Scott Albert, SRU’s vice president of facilities, environmental safety and sustainability.

As a result, it can take longer than expected for state universities to receive requested funds. This has been the case for SRU, which had initially planned a smaller scope for its Morrow Field House renovation. But enough time has lapsed that the scope of the project has grown, along with the price tag.

“When we first started asking for money to renovate Morrow Field House, the scope of work was smaller, because we had previously renovated some areas of the field house. But with how long it took for them to ultimately approve funding, those renovated spaces were approaching the need to be renovated again, so the project scope grew to include those spaces,” Albert said. “That’s why you see a $51 million request for funding.”

Albert said while there’s a combination of factors in determining which buildings on SRU’s campus need fixed up, the proposals the trustees submitted to the state have seen a “high level of deferred maintenance,” and that those buildings in particular serve a large portion of the student body.

He said, in most cases, the state system will only give schools one project in any particular year. Though the university can ask for more than one thing to be funded in a particular year, the state system may not be able to do that given its funding constraints.

According to a memo shared between university officials, the McKay building renovation’s funding would be allocated for 2029-30, while the Eisenberg and heating plant projects would be allocated for 2030-31.

The Morrow Field House project is slotted for 2027-28 and, according to the memo, around $45 million has already been approved.

When waiting on requests for funding down the road, Albert said it’s accurate to say they will largely have to wait and see how things turn out. Part of this is because the criteria the state system may use “is more than likely” slightly different from what the university uses in evaluating what needs money most urgently.

“They have a process where they evaluate and prioritize projects just like we do. They use that process to develop their list of projects to submit to the board of governors for final approval,” Albert said.