Room and board for 2011; bonds for future building among trustee actions

Miami University trustees today approved room and board rates for the 2011-2012 academic year. Rates for a typical meal plan and double room will be $10,240 for the year, up 2.89 percent. Individual costs for room and board will vary, depending on which housing and meal plans are chosen.

In a public study session, chairs of Miami’s strategic priorities task force presented data and recommendations on its charge to find ways to maintain the high quality Miami experience within the reality of a projected reduced budget over the next five years. The task force's reports and recommendations are online at www.miami.muohio.edu/spc/.

The report from Sue Henry, chair of the trustee’s academic and student affairs committee, included notes of Miami extending its lease at the current site of the Dolibois European Center in Luxembourg until 2017 and of the university’s goal to work from an 83 percent graduation rate to an 85 percent graduation rate.

Trustees also moved to take advantage of low borrowing rates to request approval from the Ohio Board of Regents to issue general receipts revenue bonds in an amount not to exceed $125 million and then, with approval, authorized Miami’s vice president for finance and business services and treasurer to issue those bonds for the purpose of paying a portion of the costs within the Series 2010 University Facilities Project which includes renovation of Elliott, Stoddard and Bishop Halls; infrastructure upgrades relating to proposed new housing facilities; safety upgrades; planning for Marcum Center additions; Havighurst Hall HVAC replacement; infrastructure upgrades and extensions for Armstrong Student Center (ASC), modification to Gaskill and Rowan halls and initial construction phase renovation of Phillips Hall.

In other action, trustees

• approved a student fee, subject to the approval of the Chancellor of the Board of Regents, of up to $125/semester to pay for the first phase of renovations at the new ASC and to cover operating expenses at the center, not to begin until the semester in which the center opens, currently anticipated to be fall 2013.
• approved suggestions by the university facilities naming committee for the Armstrong Student Center and several rooms within the planned ASC.
• approved the conferral of title of emerita/us to several retirees.
• publicly recognized national trustee Jay Henderson, whose active service to the board ends after two years as a voting trustee and six years as a national trustee, within which he served as chair of the Finance and Audit Committee for six years.

The next meeting of the board of trustees is Friday, Dec. 10.