Educational facilities, especially state universities and colleges, are often on strict budgets. Building a new building for students, research or arts and culture may be a budgetary and political nightmare for college administrators. For example, in 2011 Indiana state colleges and universities asked for $700 million to be spent collectively on new buildings on every state campus. The statehouse of Indiana refused to give any Indiana state college, including Ball State University, any money for buildings for the next two years.
Compounding with budget issues are contractors. Contractors require long-term contracts to construct buildings. If a school is unable to finance the building anymore, contractors would have legal action to respond. Even with great foresight and money management, a school may be unable to respect the dues given to contractors, resulting in legal and more financial issues.
The potential of college building projects may outweigh the costs, however. For example, through a generous private donation, the University of Oregon plans to build a new building completely devoted to the university's College of Education. The potential of this project means more state-of-the-art and attractable facilities for education majors, larger study space for the research of education and a better space for students and faculty to interact.
All college building projects are a cost benefit analysis. For example, Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington is investing in a $42 million building project for a health and science center. This may seem like a large amount of money, but the building will replace a building that is over 50 years old and does not have quality labs and research spaces for students and faculty. Such an investment can lead to more students, more faculty, more research grants and hence, more money for the college.