Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2008-09 includes funds to be used for a new Space and Science Center and Science II classroom projects.

The proposed Space and Science Center will include a planetarium, an interactive science center, as well as a Foucault’s pendulum. The Science II building will include new state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities for the Center of Mathematics and Science Education.

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal includes $4.8 million in California State University outlay funds from the 1988 General Obligation for Higher Education bonds. An additional $1.5 million in funds has been secured from the Federal Budget.

Funding has also come from private donations. Late physics professors Royal Vanderberg and Chien Yuan Hu donated a combined $400,000.

Final funding for the construction of the Space and Science Center and Science II will likely be decided by voters for the 2009-10 budgets. Final cost for the complex is estimated at $97 million.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our campus and for the community,” Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez said.

A planned natural history museum that was to be a part of the Space and Science Center expansion led to a controversy when Gonzalez helped donors to gain permits to hunt animals in Tanzania, including three species close to extinction. Plans for the natural history museum have since been dropped.

The Science II classroom complex will consist of classrooms and laboratories, as well as the departments of science, mathematics and statistics, and chemistry in a 135,000 square foot, multi-story building. A second wing will house the Space and Science Center. Sac State hopes to attract science and mathematics students to the new facilities.

“We are very pleased that not only will our Space and Science Center become a reality, but that we will gain state-of-the-art science facilities for Sacramento State students,” College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Dean Jill Trainer said in an interview with the Sacramento Bee.

“It will provide a great way to inspire a love of science in the children of the region and help the University provide top-quality opportunities for students pursing careers in science and technology,” she added. School officials plan to start a competitive bidding process with local firms for drafting and designing the facility in the spring. Construction on the new building could begin in 2009 if the construction bonds are issued. According to Ron Richardson, associated vice president of Facilities, the construction will be done in two phases. Phase one would add more than 200 classrooms, the Natural Sciences department and the planetarium. Construction could take up to one year. This building would then be available for use by students and faculty as the second phase is constructed.

The remaining portion, approximately 119,000 square feet, may take as long as two more years to complete. The entire project could be completed and ready for use by 2013. “CSU is very good about getting the construction funding once the design funding is in place,” Victor Takahashi, director of Facilities, Planning, and Construction Services, said.

The project first began in 1999, when administrators began looking at upgrading the Science and mathematics departments.

“It took years to get the funding. It is the nature of capital projects. We were competing with 22 other CSU campuses in California for funding,” Richardson commented.

The first construction bonds for this project may be on the November ballot.