Stillwater-based Oklahoma State University will return more than $4.8 million to the state’s mental health agency after plans for a behavioral health hospital on its Oklahoma City campus were canceled over funding shortfalls, The Oklahoman reported Dec. 6.
OSU/A&M regents approved the repayment Dec. 5 after the Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services abandoned its plan to build the Donahue Behavioral Health Campus on OSU-OKC property. The state agency had paid $10 million of a $13 million lease agreement, and OSU said it spent about $5.2 million preparing for the project.
OSU was not obligated to return the unspent balance but chose to do so “to be good partners and citizens,” OSU President Jim Hess, EdD, told The Oklahoman.
The department has since purchased a former hospital in southwest Oklahoma City for $18.5 million and plans to spend another $41.5 million to renovate the site into a mental health facility. The $60 million total will come from American Rescue Plan Act funds that had been earmarked for the Donahue project, which was originally budgeted at $147 million.
