After the Texas Legislature passed tuition revenue bonds in the 84th legislative session, Texas State University is one step closer to moving its health professions department entirely to Round Rock. The passage of the bond bill in the session, which ended June 1, will provide the university with $48.6 million to go toward construction of a new $67.5 million health professions building in Round Rock and $63 million to go toward construction of a new $93 million engineering building at the San Marcos campus.

Getting the bill passed

Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw said the city has been looking to get the new health professions building funding approved since Texas State first acquired the land for the Round Rock campus in 2003. McGraw said the city actively pursued the passage of the tuition revenue bonds through the city’s lobbyist as well as city leaders meeting legislators. “[The city’s role is] definitely not a passive role,” McGraw said. “We also worked with Texas State to assist them in getting [the bond bill] done in any way we can.” McGraw said the city also wanted to ensure the health professions building was included in the bill. “At one point there was a bill filed that did not have the Round Rock line item, just the [San Marcos-based engineering building] line item,” he said. “A lot of the advocacy related Texas State was making sure Round Rock was included.” McGraw said the college of health professions will help bolster what he calls “destination health care.” “This will greatly assist in getting Round Rock viewed as the place for health care needs,” he said. McGraw said before the recession, tuition revenue bonds were passed nearly every other legislative session. He said the Legislature did not pass the bond bill in 2011 because of the recession or in 2013 because of legislative gridlock. “This one, there was a lot of catching up to do because it’s been so many years since a tuition revenue bond bill,” he said. McGraw said another building will need to be funded through another tuition revenue bond before the school can move its entire health professions department to Round Rock.

Building the facilities

On top of the bond bill passing, the university also announced June 22 a $5 million donation from the St. David’s Foundation to help fund construction of the health professions building. “At St. David’s Foundation, we really like to invest in projects that address future health care needs facing our community,” St. David’s Foundation CEO Earl Maxwell said in a statement. “Providing this funding is a wise investment for our area’s future, as it will support more students who are pursuing health care careers. We are delighted that Texas State will be able to leverage our dollars to bring even more support for the project.” Bill Nance, vice president of finance and support services at Texas State, said the university system has released a request for proposal for architecture and engineering firms as well as a construction company to handle the projects. The proposals will likely be brought to the board of regents in May. and construction would begin 90 to 180 days after approval by the board. Nance said the approved funding in the bond bill will not address the total cost of constructing both the Round Rock and San Marcos buildings, so the university will rely on philanthropic gifts, such as the donations from the St. David’s Foundation, as well as institutional funding. “Both buildings are going to be fully constructed, but because of the shortfall in the funding we may have to shell out some of the space, where the building is built but some of the space is essentially constructed but not finished out for occupation until we have additional funding down the road,” Nance said. According to Texas State, the health professions program grew 104 percent in the past five years. The new health professions building will include 107,000 square feet and will provide space for a 35 percent enrollment increase in health professions programs. According to Texas State, the Round Rock campus sits on 101 acres and the campus is projected to have a capacity of 30 buildings and 15,000 students.