JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Governor Bill Lee’s proposed budget includes more than $56 million for upgrades and renovations at East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) D.M. Brown Hall, iLab and the ETSU – Eastman Valleybrook Campus.

On Monday, Lee gave his annual State of the State address where he talked about wanting Tennessee to be a leader in innovation.

“2025 should be the year to think bigger and to think boldly about what’s possible, and go there,” Lee said. “If Tennessee has led the nation as a beacon of opportunity, security and freedom, why can’t we be the nation’s capital of innovation too? Somebody is going to determine what the future looks like. That should be Tennessee.”

ETSU President Brian Noland said that the innovation initiative includes investments in higher education.

$51.3 million is proposed for phase two for renovations of Brown Hall, the university’s science building.

Lee and the General Assembly already awarded $48 million a few years ago for Brown Hall’s phase one which is currently underway.

“We have the largest college of nursing in the state of Tennessee, a significant volume of our students enroll at this university to pursue degrees in the health fields, but also to become educators in the STEM fields,” Noland said. “Every single one of those students takes biology, chemistry and their science courses in Brown Hall, a building that in many respects is identical to what it was in its last renovation in the late 1960s.”

Noland said the renovation will bring the labs, classrooms and other spaces in Brown Hall up to modern standards.

“The biology and chemistry labs in Brown Hall are more than 40 years old, and the fields of biology and chemistry have changed significantly in 40 years. So new equipment, new labs.”

Joe Bidwell, ETSU Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been with the university for 10 years and is excited to finally get renovations that will improve the capacity for instruction and quality research.

“They all started out as basic classrooms with chalkboards,” Bidwell said. “We’ve moved away from that now. But there’s still remnants of the older approach of teaching, if you will. It’s workable. But the new classrooms will just allow for a more seamless experience in terms of the media that faculty are using in their lectures, in our capacity to be able to zoom in, get speakers, in our ability to engage with students and provide media based experiences that we can’t do now. The technology alone is really going to completely transform the way we teach in Brown Hall.”

Bidwell said this renovation will put ETSU on par with other institutions in the area that already have state-of-the-art science facilities.

“In the research space, the labs are going to be completely reconfigured and really optimized for the work that the faculty and our science departments do, and that’s going to have a great impact on their capacity to do the work, but also it’s going to improve the student experience because the students engage with faculty and learn how to do research in these labs.”

Renderings for Brown Hall show a number of collaborative spaces, which is something Bidwell is looking forward to.

“A lot of our focus in teaching these days is moving toward a more of a team approach, getting students working together in groups, and for the first time, this building is going to have dedicated spaces for students to work and to study together, to prep for classes. I really think that’s going to just change the overall vibe that the building has. It’s going to be a lot more of a friendly, engaging place than it is now.”

Noland said a number of students will be taking science courses in their building in downtown Johnson City as renovations take place this fall.

Governor Lee’s proposed budget also allocates $5 million for upgrades at ETSU’s iLab and its Eastman Valleybrook campus.

“Our goal is to position Valleybrook to really become a research campus, not only for our institution but for the region as a whole,” Noland said. “We presently have faculty at Valleybrook. We teach classes out at Valleybrook. There’s a STEM gym at Valley Brook that’s an outreach and a partnership between us and local high schools across the region.”

Noland said upgrades at Valleybrook will also bring equipment and infrastructure up to modern standards. Those upgrades are expected to start later this year.

Both Noland and Bidwell thank Governor Lee and local legislators for their help in getting funding for much-needed science upgrades at ETSU.

“It’s our hope that as the legislative session draws to a close later this spring, that the governor’s budget will be signed into law by the General Assembly at that point, we’ll then be able to formally move forward,” Noland said.

Lee also designated allocations for university operating expenses, including salary increases for employees in his proposed budget.

The final budget will have to be approved later this legislative session.