Story by Daniella Tebib, News Editor
The Board of Regents discussed a variety of topics at their monthly meeting on March 1.
Tuition increase
Jackie Dudley, vice president of finance and administrative services, presented the working document for the budget of fiscal year 2020 and discussed a 1- to 3-percent increase in tuition for undergraduate and graduate students.
Revenue is estimated at $610,000 for a 1-percent tuition rate increase and $1,830,000 for a 3-percent tuition rate increase. No proposals for a tuition increase have been made yet.
President Bob Jackson said the board will determine whether or not there will be a tuition increase within the next 4 to 6 weeks.
“Obviously, we have the ability to increase tuition up to the cap of 3 percent that was established by the Council of Postsecondary Education,” Jackson said. “But, we are working feverishly. We had a long meeting today [March 4] and we’ve been meeting for weeks and months actually in regard to the new budget starting in July.”
Deferred maintenance
Jackson said deferred maintenance will be enhanced by $1 million in addition to the $5 million that is projected to be spent on various projects.
“We’re looking at all of our buildings, an audit will be done soon,” Jackson said. “The CPE is going to be working with all the universities. We’re going to be doing audited deferred maintenance needs on every public university’s campus. In the next legislative session, a budget session, which starts in January 2020, we will be making a very formal request of the legislature to appropriate funds to address these deferred maintenance needs.”
The Regents are also considering a CPE facility fee with a max of $10 per credit hour. If this is adopted in fiscal year 2020, the revenue estimate is between $1,500,000 and $1,800,000 for deferred maintenance.
Chick-fil-A and Starbucks program statement
Dudley also presented the program statements for Chick-fil-A and Starbucks.
Construction is expected to begin in May on Chick-fil-A, which will be going in the current Stables Room at the Curris Center. Starbucks, now in its design phase, will also be in the Curris Center across from the University Bookstore.
The estimated cost for Chick-fil-A is between $1.3 million and $1.8 million, and the estimated cost for Starbucks is between $830,000 and $1 million.
Funding to cover these costs will come from the investment dollars from the Sodexo contract, which has $7.5 million of investment funds in it.
Both program statements were approved unanimously by the board.
Property acquisitions
The board also unanimously approved property acquisitions of 1604 Miller Ave. and 1606 Miller Ave., which are located behind the Nash House and engineering buildings.
“One piece of property was bought last year,” Jackson said. “Now that we have board approval, the other two will be acquired once we get state approval, and we will make those acquisitions into a green space short term. I want to see us on campus develop more green spaces.”
Policy change
A law that was passed in 2017 allows the governor to remove board members from public universities.
The law also requires Murray State to implement this into university policies and procedures process. To address this, an addition was made in the Board of Regents Policy Manual Section 1.1 – Bylaws of the Board of Regents.
Position eliminations
As part of the budget report, Dudley said the University will not seek to fill 26.5 positions that are currently vacant or will be vacant after retirements at the end of the fiscal year.
“…that’s what we are trying to do to fix the budget for the next fiscal year, so it won’t impact people,” Jackson said.
The Board of Regents’ next meeting will take place on April 5.