The Penn State Board of Trustees is on site at the university’s Beaver Campus for its July meetings on Thursday and Friday.
The board’s various committees are set to discuss everything from renovations to building names to the Berkey Creamery.
The meetings kick off on Thursday, as each of the board’s committees will meet to discuss business and vote on action items ahead of Friday’s full board meeting.
Most of the highlights come from the Committee on Finance, Business, and Capital Planning. The committee will consider its proposed operating budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year to account for a 3 percent increase in state appropriations and the proposed tuition and fees for the fall semester.
It will vote on projects including renovations to the women’s health unit of the Hershey Medical Center, a $4.5 million project that will enlarge patient rooms and bathrooms and increase patient safety while allowing newborns to room with their mothers.
The committee will also vote on renaming the new Health and Human Development East Building on Penn State’s campus, instead opting to call it the Nursing Sciences Building. The name change makes sense as the building houses the College of Nursing, the largest such educator of pre-licensure students in the state.
The committee will also vote on some name changes, the most notable of which comes from a donation to the university from Frances and John Tsui. They are funding the women’s volleyball facility within Rec Hall, which will be called the Lori and Russ Rose Women’s Volleyball Complex, referencing the legendary coach.
The Committee on Academic Affairs and Student Life has one big agenda item: the confirmation of Douglas R. Cavener as the dean of the Eberly College of Science effective July 18. Cavener was appointed for the position by president Eric Barron, and if he passed through the committee, he will need to be voted in by the full board on Friday.
The Committee on Outreach, Development, and Community Relations will hear an update on the Alumni Association from its new president, Kevin Steele. Penn State Vice President of Strategic Communications Lawrence Lokman will also report to the committee on the 150th anniversary of the Berkey Creamery.
The board will also continue to review its presidential search process in the wake of Eric Barron’s hiring over a year ago. Thomas Poole, the vice president for administration, will address the Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning with a report from his task force, which has interviewed Barron and others involved in the search process to improve its process for future presidential searches.
The committee meetings run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Penn State Beaver Classroom Building on Thursday. The Board of Trustees meeting will move from executive session into public comment at 11 a.m. on Friday at the campus’s Student Union Building auditorium. The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and adjourn three hours later.
