University of Virginia Library

Shannon Requests $4.3 Million To Finance Undergraduate Library

The University will seek
$4.3 million from the 1974
General Assembly to finance a
new undergraduate reading
library to relieve space shortage
in Alderman Library.

Giving the project too
priority in the University's
capital outlay requests,
University President Edgar F.
Shannon Jr. told Governor
Linwood Holton's budget
advisory board May 22 that
enlargement of undergraduate
library facilities is essential.

Mr. Shannon said that the
University expects an
enrollment of 13,000 this fall
and 16,000 by 1980, and that
the 35-year old Alderman
Library which seats less than
1,000 students, is "simply
inadequate."

The University's capital
outlay requests were outlined
to Mr. Holton and his budget
advisors on their biennial tour
of state institutions to review
building needs.

The University will request
approximately $17.3 million
from state tax sources for
capital outlay during the
1974-76 biennium.

The money will be used for
construction of a primary care
facility in the health science
center, and planning of an
addition to University
Hospital, as well as for the
library.

Mr. Shannon told Mr.
Holton that the University's
fund request is much lower
than the $23.6 million
requested two years ago.

The money will also
partially cover construction of
a primary care facility which
will replace outmoded facilities
in the medical school. The
University will finance about
half of the primary care center
costs by a bond issue, Mr.
Shannon said.

Other capital outlay
projects will provide for
renovation of Peabody, McKim
and Cobb Halls.

Mr. Shannon said that the
University has dropped plans
for a new physics building and
the Birdwood residential plan
because the proposed 1980
enrollment figure has dropped
from 18,000 to 16,000, making
these projects unnecessary.

He said that renovation of
Clark Hall, which the law
school will vacate when it moves
to its new building on Copeley
Hill in 1974, will offer
immediate relief for crowded
conditions in Alderman
Library. Upon completion of
the proposed undergraduate
library, Mr. Shannon said,
Clark Hall will be converted
into a science technology
library with classroom and
office space being made
available to several small
departments.

Other planning funds were
requested for a social science
research building, a regional
scientific computer center, and
a physical education facility.
On the latter project, Mr.
Shannon commented,
"Because of the admission of
women and the total
enrollment growth of the
University, there is a critical
shortage of physical education
facilities, which are so
important these days to the
full development of our young
people, both physically and
mentally."