The University of Texas Board of Regents voted today to rebuild its hurricane-damaged teaching hospital on Galveston Island, rejecting calls to move the hospital inland to prevent harm from future storms, the Houston Chronicle reported. Last September, Hurricane Ike caused more than $710-million in damage to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston campus, which includes the hospital.

After several members of the Galveston community appeared at the board’s meeting to decry a plan to move the medical campus about 20 miles inland, to League City, the regents punted the decision to the State Legislature, voting that the campus should be rebuilt in its former location as long as the state was willing to pay the bill — which could near a billion dollars.

“This board, by this vote, is deeply committed to the future of keeping UTMB on Galveston Island, but this decision is not our decision alone,” said the board chairman, H. Scott Caven Jr., according to the Houston Chronicle.

Proponents of moving the hospital said the university would be better able to compete for paying patients inland. The hospital was losing about $40-million a month after the hurricane hit. The regents feared that the medical campus would go bankrupt in three months if the board didn’t take action, so they voted in November to lay off about 4,000 employees. —Megan Eckstein