Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon's universities have asked the state to spend $250 million on a shared research space in Portland's south Waterfront. That means a big chunk of the university construction budget would go to that project. Ethan Lindsey reports.

Think of the state university system asking the state for construction money as Santa Claus putting gifts under the tree.

There's limited space in his bag, and even Santa can't spend as much on gifts in a recession.

And he wants to make all the kids happy - so if he gives little Johnnie a big gift, he has to do the same for his sister Susie.

OSU, UO, and OHSU all usually get a big gift and then Santa gives a less-expensive one to their smaller sibling campuses.

But this time, Santa -- I mean the board of higher ed -- decided to give everyone a big gift to share -- The $250 million South Waterfront Life Sciences Facility.

Bob Simonton is the assistant vice chancellor for capital construction.

Bob Simonton: “We've never had a collaborative project such as this, this would be the largest project we've ever undertaken. So it is kind of an anomaly.”

Here's where the analogy ends.

Whereas Santa has the final decision, the higher ed budget request first goes to the governor, who sends his recommendation to the state legislature.

It gets voted on next year.