Dear Colleagues:

     I write to share a few highlights from last Friday’s meeting of the Board of Trustees.

     The Board discussed our University’s development of a more decentralized, incentive-based approach to budgeting. The new budget model will better align our resources with the priorities of our new strategic plan, which was approved by the trustees on Friday. After the New Year, we will actively communicate the details of the new plan with you and our other constituents.  

     Our new budget model will incentivize all colleges and units to promote student success, stimulate strategic growth, encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and support academic excellence. The University has launched a website, bsu.edu/budgetmodel, which provides information about the initiative, including the rationale, planning process, and timeline. The site will be regularly updated.

     In other business, the Board approved an average increase of 2.1 percent in room and board rates for 2019-20 that keeps the cost of living on our campus highly competitive as compared to our peer institutions and other in-state schools. Rates for first-time students will be 3 percent higher while returning students enrolled in our premium plan, which locks in costs for a two-year period, will experience no increase from the prior year.

     Also at the meeting, Susana Rivera-Mills, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, updated the Board about national searches underway to fill open dean positions for the College of Architecture and Planning, Miller College of Business, College of Health, and Teachers College.

     Board members also were updated about the University’s Centennial Celebration. Throughout the academic year, individual colleges have been spotlighted each month with special events. January will spotlight the College of Health. Among events will be a January 10 talk by Edwin McDonald, associate director of adult clinical nutrition at the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care; a Healthy Lifestyle Fair tentatively set for Jan. 16; and several health workshops January 28.

     At the end of the Board meeting, I made a few comments. If you would like to read my remarks, please visit the website.

     It is a privilege to serve with you, and I am grateful for your encouragement and support.


     
     Geoff