The University of Illinois at Chicago's """"""""UIC FACILITY IMPROVEMENT GRANT"""""""" is a three phased program for upgrading the facilities of the campus animal care program. One phase of this proposal involves replacing the 30 year old chillers and upgrading the 17 year old chillers in the HVAC system of the central animal facility to insure continued compliance with the recommendations of the Guide and the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. In addition to the direct implications that would result from noncompliance, the institution would also lose the AAALAC accreditation status it has maintained for 17 years. The second phase of this proposal would involve modifying the current cages used to house male baboons to double the available floor space. Replacement of 75% of the female baboon cages with larger cages would meet a literal interpretation of the recommendations of the Guide and allow this unique colony to continue providing hand-mated timed pregnancies to those investigators in the Chicago metropolitan area who depend on the availability of these animals for their research programs. The third phase of this proposal involves installing automatic watering in the two self-contained, satellite animal facilities on the East campus to permit continued standardization of the housing and care programs on the UIC campus. Each of these three phases represents the continuation of the facility improvement program to which the institution has been committed since the construction of the first Phase of the centralized facility over 30 years ago and for which funding is not currently available form either campus or income generated funds. In the past UIC has used a combination of core support, campus reserve and income generated funds to maintain the facilities and equipment at a level which meets or exceeds the recommendations in the Guide, but recent changes in the Guide and the accumulated wear on the HVAC systems have placed the needs of the facilities beyond the ability of the funding sources to coup and thus the submission of this three phased proposal.
