Hunter College is a unique institution because it is a long existing urban university with a history of educating populations whose access to higher education has been historically limited. For decades, over 60% of Hunter College undergraduates have been underserved students and currently about 75% of our students are women. Throughout the years we have demonstrated a strong commitment to educate our unique population of students, providing a full range of academic programs, from undergraduate classes to doctoral dissertation research through the CUNY's Graduate Center. We have a long-standing RCMI program that includes topnotch scientists who use animals in their programs of research. Each of these scientists is productive and most hold NIH funding. This research effort is supported by an active IACUC committee and very well run Animal Facility. The Facility maintains a variety of vertebrate animal species and has undergone a number of improvements over the past decade with funds from both NIH, the State of New York, and Hunter College. Nonetheless, the age of the current ventilation system and the enormous growth of our research efforts have resulted in increasing down time for repairs and an increasingly desperate need for more space. Thus the overall purpose of this application is to provide funds to replace and repair the existing ventilation system and to renovate new space recently made available to the Facility by the College. To accomplish this goal, we propose to: I. Replace the existing HVAC units and renovate the current HVAC duct distribution such that airflow is improved and made more reliable; 2. Improve the limited electrical service; 3. Repair and provide access to important mechanical systems for which access is now limited; and 4. Renovate the new and contiguous space for the Facility. This latter space, currently unusable, will be subdivided for animal housing, multi-user testing and general surgical use. To meet increased demands for animal housing, additional self-contained and ventilated cage units are requested. When these alterations and renovations are completed, the Animal Facility will be able to accommodate the needs of the current and future research faculty at Hunter College, and allow this faculty to continue to compete successfully for federal funds. Further, it will allow us to maintain our outstanding record in mentoring underserved populations in science.
