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FAST FACTS:
THE AURARIA
SCIENCE BUILDING

Ground broken December 2007; expected completion summer 2009

Building will serve 37,000 students and faculty at all three colleges on the Auraria Campus

The project will add nearly 200,000 square feet to the existing building, for a total of more than 313,000 square feet of gross space

40,000 square feet of space currently used for science education will be reallocated

Prior appropriation: $35,316,976
(includes $3 million in grants)

FY 08/09 Request (initial): $50,170,547

FY 09/10 Request: $25,948,633

Total cost: $111,436,156
(approximately $37 million per institution)

Metro State: A hub for Colorado’s
future scientists and high-tech workers 

The study of science at Metro State is a key source for professionals who are fueling technological innovation and economic growth in Colorado.

The new science building on the Auraria Campus will help Metro State, the Community College of Denver and the University of Colorado at Denver support the fast-growing high-tech/science sector in Colorado, the highest concentration of high-tech workers among all 50 states.*

The number of students on the Auraria Campus has more than doubled since it opened, from 15,000 students in 1976 to 37,000 today, yet the campus has absorbed this growth with only about a 15 percent increase in facility space. One fifth of all public higher-education students in Colorado attend classes at Auraria. The majority—21,000—attend Metro State.

Rendering from Speer blvd. [ larger image ]

The need for more science facilities

In the last five years alone, the number of Metro State students majoring in biology and chemistry has increased by 35 percent and 49 percent, respectively. The College’s need is critical, as its science programs have saturated the current classroom and laboratory space.

The one lab in use by general biology students runs at full force from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the more than 900 students enrolled in Human Biology for non-majors do not get the benefit of a lab component of the course at all, due to lack of space.

The new science building will increase Metro State’s biology teaching labs from nine to 16, the chemistry teaching labs from six to nine, and the earth and atmospheric science teaching labs from five to eight. Six labs for research—increasingly a requirement for acceptance into graduate schools—will be added, as will a geographic information systems classroom and a computer lab.

In addition to the space issues, there are concerns about the current building’s degraded systems. In the past two years, two labs had to be closed due to dangerous levels of chemical fumes and inadequate ventilation. And, because the chemical fumes cause corrosion, computers in these rooms must be replaced annually, at a cost of about $50,000 per year.

Rendering from south [ larger image ]

Students of color in science

Metro State has more students of color in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields than any of Colorado’s four-year undergraduate institutions. Metro State is second only to CU Boulder and by just 32 students. In fact, if you add in the UCD students-of-color this new building will host, the number will far exceed CU Boulder.
Thirty percent of the College’s biology majors and 27 percent of its chemistry majors are students of color.

A variety of programs at Metro State contribute to its success in educating students of color in the sciences.

The new science building at Auraria, with students of color from all three Auraria institutions, will educate more future scientists of color than any other location in the state.

• The nine-year-old Strides Toward Encouraging Professions in Science program at Metro State encourages students of color at community colleges in Denver and Aurora to continue their studies and earn a four-year science degree at Metro State.
  
  
• Since 2001, the Summer Science Scholars program has brought high school students of color to campus for a three-week program of hands-on science and mathematics activities.
  
  
• Under a grant from NASA and the United Negro College Fund, Metro State is partnering with the Community College of Denver to expand opportunities for students of color in aerospace science.
  
  
• Metro State is partnering with CH2M Hill and the Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation in a “Math & Science Challenge,” in which teams of Metro State students develop math and science projects and introduce future career opportunities to middle school students in selected Denver Public Schools.

Rendering from north west [ larger image ]

An engine for opportunity

At Metro State, we are committed to helping Coloradans of all ethnicities grow and prosper and to making Colorado an even better place for all of us to live.

The new science building will be a key ingredient in our ongoing success, ensuring that the study of science at Metro State is an engine for opportunity and a cutting-edge resource for future generations.

*Colorado Data Book, Colorado Office of Ecomomic Development and International Trade, August 2006.