2025-2027 

Emergency Backup Power System

$22.5 Million / $11.8 Million

CWU seeks funding to establish a dedicated emergency backup system to enhance campus safety in case of an extended power outage, which in winter months could pose serious risk to life and safety.

The facilities that would be connected to the generator are critical in an emergency and include:

• Physical plant
• Facilities management shops
• CWU Police
• Student Union and Recreation Center
• Student Medical Center
• Campus sidewalks and lighting.

Behavioral and Mental Health Design

$9.7 Million

The proposed project will replace the existing Psychology Building with one modern facility that will serve academic needs and provide space for CWU Counseling Services. Due to the increased demand for mental health services over the past 10 years, CWU has increased the number of counselors we employ, and we have run out of space.

By placing the academics and practitioners together, both will benefit from collaborations that will become more available in the new building. The existing Psychology Building was built in 1975 and is very energy-inefficient. The new building will be designed and is planned to be connected to CWU’s first geothermal well, currently under construction. The current building also has a wing that is unusable due to contamination from the now-defunct Chimpanzee Institute.

The Student Medical and Counseling Center is extremely undersized, which has forced many of the services associated with counseling to spread out to various locations around campus.

Arts Education Design

$9 Million

CWU seeks design funding to construct a new Arts Education Complex to address the growing programs of Art and Design and Family Consumer Sciences, and replace the existing energy inefficient and ADA non-compliant buildings. This project will not only provide the needed instructional, studio, and gallery space but it will also reduce operating costs and help bring the campus into compliance with the Clean Buildings Act. The new building will be designed to connect to CWU’s first geothermal well, which is currently under construction.

Aligning with CWU’s unifying value of student success, the requested replacement of Randall Hall and Michaelsen Hall are key strategies to ensure the development of creativity, innovation, and artistically espoused economic growth inspired by the program graduates.

Aviation Training Hangar

$9.9 Million

This single biennium project would construct an educational hangar at Bowers Field, where CWU’s world-class aviation program conducts flight training for students studying to become commercial pilots. CWU is home to the only Bachelor of Science program in Aviation in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, more than half of the students applying for acceptance into the professional pilot program are turned away due to space constraints, which would be resolved with this project.

Wildcat Farm Structure

$1.7 Million

The Wildcat Farm seeks infrastructure necessary to meet its programmatic goals, including promoting and furthering sustainability initiatives on campus, increasing student education opportunities through high-impact practices, and providing the necessary equipment to continue expanding the Farm’s growing efforts to make access to organic, hyper-local produce more equitable within the community.

Infrastructure additions include an industrial composting unit, a facility housing cold storage to wash, pack and store produce, an outdoor classroom, and an all-gender composting toilet.

Classroom and Lab Equipment

$3.1 Million

CWU is seeking funding to replace vital laboratory and educational equipment that is no longer usable or has become obsolete and irrelevant to the disciplines. The requested equipment upgrades have a typical operational life of 15–25 years and are affixed to building structures due to size and complexity of utilities required to operate the equipment.

The vast majority of the requested equipment serves students in STEM fields, which is important to the representation of many traditionally underserved populations.

Climate Commitment Act Funding: Strategic Decarbonization Package

$106.8 Million

CWU seeks funding to support multiple initiatives to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel-fired boilers for building heat and to build out the utility systems needed for campus decarbonization. Our primary strategy relies on the implementation of a nodal system of geothermal heat pumps that will be utilized to heat and cool buildings on campus.

This endeavor will require building system modifications and extensive infrastructure updates. These systems will help us meet our sustainability goals, and are also needed for compliance with the Washington Clean Building Performance Standard. The law requires CWU to remove fossil fuels from our heating systems and meet a campus-wide energy-use target, both by 2040.

This package of individual projects is part of our 15-year Decarbonization Plan, which identifies strategies, phasing, and costs to meet these goals.

This funding is being requested from the Climate Commitment Act.