DASNY Funding of $140 Million Enables Capital Improvements, Including Wireless Connectivity
Aug 26, 2009 By: yunews
Aug 26, 2009 -- The Board of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) approved Yeshiva University’s negotiated sale of 30-year fixed-rate bonds in the amount of approximately $140 million in June. The Dormitory Authority assists in the financing and building of facilities for higher education, health care, nonprofit institutions and other public agencies through the issuing of tax-exempt securities.
“These funds will be invested in new and recent capital projects throughout the University,” explained J. Michael Gower, YU’s vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer. “Selling these bonds allows us to borrow money at an attractive cost over a long-term period.”
Proceeds from the sale of the bonds will go towards the new Glueck Center for Jewish Study on the Wilf Campus, the construction and equipping of an information technology center, refinancing existing projects on the Manhattan and Bronx campuses, the reimbursement of a portion of the costs of acquiring Einstein’s Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine, refinancing previously-issued bonds and additional miscellaneous projects.
Approximately $15 million has been earmarked for ITS improvements. While a recent major expansion effort has equipped Manhattan residence halls with wireless connectivity, more improvements are planned for the upcoming year.
“We hope to continue upgrading the network infrastructure on both the Beren and Wilf campuses,” said Marc Milstein, YU’s vice president of information technology and chief information officer. “In fact, there are several initiatives already in the works.”
These initiatives include deploying wireless connectivity throughout both the Beren and Wilf campuses, including outdoor areas; switching student and alumni e-mail accounts to an outside provider (e.g., Google); moving all faculty and staff to Microsoft Exchange, which will place all University employees on a uniform mail system; expanding support of high-performance computing to facilitate research efforts in mathematics and the sciences; and the construction of a new information technology data center.