{"id":24656,"date":"2016-06-15T08:08:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=24656"},"modified":"2016-06-15T08:08:18","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:08:18","slug":"bemidji-pioneer-legislature-the-waiting-game-saxhaug-tours-hagg-sauer-at-bsu-with-school-officials-hopeful-for-a-special-session-to-replace-building-w-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2016\/06\/15\/bemidji-pioneer-legislature-the-waiting-game-saxhaug-tours-hagg-sauer-at-bsu-with-school-officials-hopeful-for-a-special-session-to-replace-building-w-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Bemidji Pioneer: LEGISLATURE: The waiting game: Saxhaug tours Hagg-Sauer at BSU with school officials hopeful for a special session to replace building (W\/ VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sen.<\/a>
Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids, listen to Colleen Greer, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at BSU, Thursday during a tour of faculty offices on the third floor of Hagg-Sauer Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

BEMIDJI — With a special session for the Minnesota Legislature up in the air, District 5 Sen. Tom Saxhaug visited BSU on Thursday to reiterate his support for a bonding project on the campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

The visit to BSU comes a few weeks after the Legislature failed to pass a last-minute comprehensive bonding bill when the session ended at midnight May 22.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gov. Mark Dayton has said he’s open to legislators reconvening for a special session to finish work on bonding projects. He even specifically mentioned that the $12.1 million in funding for BSU’s replacement of the Hagg-Sauer building on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his visit Thursday, Saxhaug said there’s about a 50 percent chance a special session will be called this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The governor is on board and it’s kind of up to the House, because the House is where any bonding bill will come from,” Saxhaug said. “The Hagg-Sauer project has been recognized by the governor as one of the top five projects in MNSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System). I think I can say with some certainty that if we go for the funding, Hagg-Sauer will be included.”<\/span><\/p>\n

BSU’s project is $18.1 million and includes tearing down the current 82,500 square foot Hagg-Sauer structure, built in 1970, and replacing it with a smaller 25,000 square foot Academic Learning Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karen Snorek, BSU vice president for finance and administration, was along for the tour Thursday, pointing out Hagg-Sauer deficiencies. Snorek said problems include water damage, outdated lecture style classrooms and poor accommodations for disabled students.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a bonding bill is passed in a special session, BSU President Richard Hanson said $12.1 million would be provided by the state and remaining funding would come through the MNSCU system. Richard said replacing the building is imperative for students and faculty alike.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I don’t know how much time we’ve got before we have serious problems with mold or polluted air, where we would have to close the building. It’s a health issue, a professional issue and it’s also an exciting idea for new learning space,” Hanson said. “Most students would have a modern building with great classrooms and learning areas.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Snorek, if a special session doesn’t happen or if a bonding bill doesn’t include the Hagg-Sauer project, the rebuild plan will have to be pushed back.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We’ll stay status quo, the building will hopefully hold up for another few years if we don’t get anything,” Snorek said. “We’ll be right back in 2017 and this will still be our No. 1 project in 2018.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEMIDJI — With a special session for the Minnesota Legislature up in the air, District 5 Sen. Tom Saxhaug visited BSU on Thursday to reiterate his support for a bonding project on the campus. The visit to BSU comes a few weeks after the Legislature failed to pass a last-minute comprehensive bonding bill when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24658,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24656\/revisions\/24658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}