Penn State’s Board of Trustees will meet Thursday and Friday at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, where it will consider how much the state will request for appropriations and construction. The board also will vote on final plans and funding for a 193,000-square-foot, $144 million Chemical and Bioengineering Building, and set President Eric Barron’s salary.
According to the agenda for Friday’s full board meeting, trustees are expected to vote on a total appropriation request for 2017-18 of $350,452,000. Last year, the Board requested a total appropriation of $353.3 million. The university ultimately received a total appropriation of $315.7 million, a 2.5 percent increase over the prior year.
Gov. Tom Wolf has said he wants to restore funding for Pennsylvania colleges and universities to 2010-11 levels, before state support was slashed during his predecessor Tom Corbett’s administration. For Penn State, that would mean a general support appropriation of $264.3 million. The general support appropriation for 2016-17 is $230.4 million.
The university’s total appropriation also includes funds for Pennsylvania College of Technology, Penn State Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension and the Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
Trustees also will receive information on the university’s capital budget request for 2017-18. The request is submitted annually to the state Department of Education and includes construction projects identified as priorities for which Penn State is seeking authorization by the state legislature for later funding by the governor.
Penn State will submit a capital budget request of $148.2 million for construction and equipment. The projects include a classroom building at Penn State Abington, renovations to Hosler Building at University Park, expansion and renovation of the Nursing Sciences Building at University Park, and renovation of Vairo Library at Penn State Brandywine.
The Board will vote on final plans and authorization of funding for several construction projects at University Park, including the new Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Building at University Park. Fenske Lab near the intersection of Shortlidge and Curtin Roads, will be demolished and the research and instructional laboratory building will be constructed on the same site.
Fenske Lab and Hallowell Building currently house the chemical and biomedical engineering departments. According to the university, Hallowell is too small for the growing biomedical engineering department and Fenske is outdated for teaching modern chemical engineering. The organization that accredits university engineering programs, ABET, identified Fenske as being outdated seven years ago.
The board will vote on salary terms recommended by the Committee on Compensation based on ‘an evaluation of performance goals and objectives,’ according to the agenda. Barron’s current salary,not including other compensation and incentives, is $800,000.
In other business, the board will receive an overview of the university’s endowment, and vote on members for the board of directors for the Corporation of Penn State and the Hershey Medical Center.
Board committee meetings will be held from 9:15 a.m.-5 p.m. on Thursday at the Penn Stater. The full board will meet at 1 p.m. on Friday in Dean’s Hall at the Penn Stater.
