University buildings are ready; money isn't - Benjamin Niolet, Eric Ferreri and Jay Price(Raleigh) News & Observer

Workers are putting the final touches on a 160,000-square-foot monument to scientific exploration. The $92 million New Venable Hall building will offer university scientists expanded, high-tech classrooms, offices and labs. That's assuming the state can afford to open it. The $92 million price tag doesn't pay the electric bill or take care of maintenance. According to university records, the science building is one of 17 new state university facilities across North Carolina that may not open as expected this year or next if the state can't provide the money to operate them. "We'll either have to mothball these new science buildings or we'll have to pull the money out of the academic side," UNC System President Erskine Bowles told reporters last week. "It's crazy not to give us the funds to operate them.