After year’s of trying to raise the necessary funds on their own, leaders of the Black Cultural Center (BCC) at UNC-Chapel Hill got a boost this week when state lawmakers approved using $9 million to cover the cost of building a new center.
The proposed Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center is one of several projects approved under a bill allowing non-appropriated money to be used for capital improvements at several UNC-system schools. The projects would be financed with funds available to the schools from gifts, grants, receipts, self-liquidating indebtedness or other funds not appropriated by the state.
The following represents the approved projects and amounts appropriated.
Appalachian State University New Dining Hall – Supplement $9,569,744
Steam Distribution/Return System Reconstruction $3,109,200
East Carolina University Diabetes Building – Planning $500,000
West End Dining Hall -Supplement $5,089,700
North Carolina School of the Arts Technology Infrastructure – Residence Halls $1,000,000
N.C. State University Expansion of Parking Facilities $9,000,000
Centennial Campus Infrastructure $18,780,000
Centennial Campus Tenant Upfits $6,750,000
UNC-Asheville New Residence Hall – Supplement $3,720,800
UNC-Chapel Hill Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center $9,000,000
UNC-Charlotte Alumni Center $3,300,000
Last fall, UNC-CH announced that it would put $6 million of a $28.6 million gift from UNC graduate David B. Clayton – the largest bequest in the school’s history – toward the new BCC. The gift was a boon to lagging fundraising efforts. At that time, the BCC had managed to raise only about half of the proposed cost of the new building.
This week’s action marks one of the final hurdles in authorizing such funds to be used for the building of the new center. Gov. Hunt must give the bill his signature.