Board preps for final meeting
Could start up talk of tuition
By: Johanna Yueh, Staff Writer
Issue date: 7/17/08 Section: University
As the summer winds down, committees of the UNC Board of Trustees are preparing for their first meeting, scheduled for July 23 to 24, before the start of the 2008-09 school year.
Trustees say there is no huge issue to discuss at the meeting. Instead, the meeting will cover a range of routine business matters.
One item that will likely garner more attention is Carolina North, UNC's satellite research campus, which received funding from the N.C. General Assembly earlier this month.
Bob Winston, chairman of the buildings and grounds committee, which has oversight over the project, will not be present at the meeting. He said he expects discussion on what to do with their allocated budget and how to move projects forward.
Design plans for the Innovation Center, the first building scheduled to be completed at Carolina North, will be up for approval. The building has been under review since initial designs were unveiled to the public in January.
The board is also expected to vote on the Kenan Stadium expansion plan, which will add more seats and a new academic support building.
The board also plans to discuss, without taking action, a preliminary design review that includes the design guidelines for Carolina North. Roger Perry, chairman of the board and member of the buildings and grounds committee, said the board hopes to have the guidelines approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council within the next year.
Guidelines would provide standards for the space that proposed buildings would occupy, allowing UNC to approve multiple building plans with local governing bodies in a short span of time.
Though tuition is not on the agenda for the upcoming meeting, several comparison studies from the audit and finance committee may help lay the groundwork for future talks.
The studies, which are part of benchmarking discussions that began in January, compare UNC to peer institutions on cost of student and faculty benefits to see how the University measures up in relation to similar schools.
Paul Fulton, chairman of the audit and finance committee, stressed that faculty benefits cause some concern for lagging behind those of other institutions and state employees.
"We've made a lot of progress on getting faculty salary into the 80th percentile," Fulton said. "But their benefits are not competitive at all."
Trustees will also see presentations concerning enrollment growth. The faculty-to-student ratio report by the audit and finance committee may shed light on any future accommodations.
The study is meant to show how many instructors would need to be added in order to accommodate increased numbers of students.
The UNC system is expected to grow by 40 percent - or 80,000 students - in the next decade. The University has already made preliminary plans to prepare for up to 33,000 students by 2017.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
Trustees say there is no huge issue to discuss at the meeting. Instead, the meeting will cover a range of routine business matters.
One item that will likely garner more attention is Carolina North, UNC's satellite research campus, which received funding from the N.C. General Assembly earlier this month.
Bob Winston, chairman of the buildings and grounds committee, which has oversight over the project, will not be present at the meeting. He said he expects discussion on what to do with their allocated budget and how to move projects forward.
Design plans for the Innovation Center, the first building scheduled to be completed at Carolina North, will be up for approval. The building has been under review since initial designs were unveiled to the public in January.
The board is also expected to vote on the Kenan Stadium expansion plan, which will add more seats and a new academic support building.
The board also plans to discuss, without taking action, a preliminary design review that includes the design guidelines for Carolina North. Roger Perry, chairman of the board and member of the buildings and grounds committee, said the board hopes to have the guidelines approved by the Chapel Hill Town Council within the next year.
Guidelines would provide standards for the space that proposed buildings would occupy, allowing UNC to approve multiple building plans with local governing bodies in a short span of time.
Though tuition is not on the agenda for the upcoming meeting, several comparison studies from the audit and finance committee may help lay the groundwork for future talks.
The studies, which are part of benchmarking discussions that began in January, compare UNC to peer institutions on cost of student and faculty benefits to see how the University measures up in relation to similar schools.
Paul Fulton, chairman of the audit and finance committee, stressed that faculty benefits cause some concern for lagging behind those of other institutions and state employees.
"We've made a lot of progress on getting faculty salary into the 80th percentile," Fulton said. "But their benefits are not competitive at all."
Trustees will also see presentations concerning enrollment growth. The faculty-to-student ratio report by the audit and finance committee may shed light on any future accommodations.
The study is meant to show how many instructors would need to be added in order to accommodate increased numbers of students.
The UNC system is expected to grow by 40 percent - or 80,000 students - in the next decade. The University has already made preliminary plans to prepare for up to 33,000 students by 2017.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
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