(a. “Authority” means the Virginia College Building Authority created by § 23-30.25.

(b. “Project” in the case of a participating institution, means a structure or structures suitable for use as a dormitory or other multi-unit housing facility for students, faculty, officers or employees, a dining hall, student union, administration building, academic building, library, laboratory, research facility, classroom, athletic facility, health care facility, maintenance, storage or utility facility and other structures or facilities related to any of the foregoing or required or useful for the instruction of students or the conducting of research or the operation of an institution of higher education, including parking and other facilities or structures essential or convenient for the orderly conduct of such institution of higher education, and shall also include landscaping, site preparation, furniture, equipment and machinery and other similar items necessary or convenient for the operation of a particular facility or structure in the manner for which its use is intended but shall not include such items as books, fuel, supplies or other items the costs of which are customarily deemed to result in a current operating charge, and shall not include any facility used or to be used for sectarian instruction or as a place of religious worship nor any facility which is used or to be used primarily in connection with any part of the program of a school or department of divinity for any religious denomination.

(c. “Costs” as applied to a project or any portion thereof financed under the provisions of this chapter means all or any part of the cost of construction, acquisition, alteration, enlargement, reconstruction and remodeling of a project including all lands, structures, real or personal property, rights, rights-of-way, air rights, franchises, easements and interests acquired or used for or in connection with a project, the cost of demolishing or removing any buildings or structures on land so acquired, including the cost of acquiring any lands to which such buildings or structures may be moved, the cost of all machinery and equipment, financing charges, interest prior to, during and for a period after completion of such construction and acquisition, provisions for reserves for principal and interest and for extensions, enlargements, additions, replacements, renovations and improvements, the cost of architectural, engineering, financial and legal services, plans, specifications, studies, surveys, estimates of cost and of revenues, administrative expenses, expenses necessary or incident to determining the feasibility or practicability of constructing the project and such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the construction and acquisition of the project, the financing of such construction and acquisition and the placing of the project in operation.

(d. “Bonds” or “revenue bonds” means revenue bonds of the Authority issued under the provisions of this chapter, including revenue refunding bonds, notes and other obligations, notwithstanding that the same may be secured by mortgage or by the full faith and credit or by any other lawfully pledged security of either one or more participating institutions.

(e. “Participating institution” means any (i) organization that is exempt from federal income taxation pursuant to § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that is owned or controlled by a public institution of higher education or whose purpose is to support or otherwise benefit a public institution of higher education or (ii) nonprofit private institution of higher education in the Commonwealth whose primary purpose is to provide collegiate or graduate education and not to provide religious training or theological education that, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, undertakes the financing and construction or acquisition of a project or undertakes the refunding or refinancing of obligations or of a mortgage or of advances as provided in this chapter.