EVANSVILLE— Working through a wide-ranging agenda Thursday afternoon, the University of Southern Indiana's board of trustees approved seeking state funding for building renovations, announced a new degree program and raised fees for student meals and housing beginning in the fall of 2013.
USI is requesting $18 million in state funding for the repair and rehabilitation of three campus buildings during the 2013-2015 biennium.
The money would be used for the renovation and expansion of the Physical Activities Center (PAC), Science Center and Technology Center.
Cindy Brinker, USI's vice president for government and university relations, said the three buildings are among the oldest on the campus.
"When the PAC was built, we had about 2,200 students," Brinker said. "And now we have over 10,500 students that go to school here, and we need to renovate the PAC because it is so out-of-date."
Several areas of the PAC, built in 1979, need renovation and upgrading including two classrooms, a large group exercise classroom, weight training room, sports medicine training room, the natatorium, locker rooms, main lobbies and corridor and faculty offices. Plans call for adding 47,700 square feet to the building for academic and support space for the kinesiology and sports departments.
"There's just not enough space in the building (kinesiology department) to accommodate all the people that are there," Brinker said.
The lower level of the Science Center hasn't been renovated since it's construction in 1969, she said. Work there will include upgrading electrical and data systems, installing new laboratory casework and furnishings and upgrading the interiors of classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices. Classrooms and labs would also be reconfigured to provide up-to-date teaching facilities.
Renovation of the Technology Center, built in 1976, would include updating classrooms and labs used by the art department, and replacement of translucent panels on the building's exterior and refinishing the exterior metal wall panels.
Brinker said USI won't know if the request for state funds is approved until the end of Indiana's legislative budget session next April.
New degree program
The new anthropology degree program will be implemented in the spring and consists of 120 semester hours: 51 hours in core curriculum, 33 hours in anthropology and related courses, and 36 hours in general electives.
"We have a number of students that are ready to jump over once it becomes a major," said Michael Strezewski, associate professor of anthropology.
The program is designed to prepare students for both direct entry in social science, community service, military, for-profit and non-for-profit business occupations and advanced graduate study.
Ronda Priest, chair of the sociology, anthropology and criminal justices studies department, said the department has a strong core of very enthusiastic students.
"Students love this," Priest said. "It includes archaeology, cultural anthropology, physical anthropology which includes forensics. So anthropology just kind of stretches out and blends with all these different programs and majors."
The degree program doesn't require additional funding.
Fees to increase
Trustees approved an increase of $51 dollars per semester, or $3.18 a week, for university housing, said Mark Rozewski, vice president for finance and administration.
The cost for living in a USI dormitory is currently, $1,964 a semester for one- and two-bedroom apartments with two students per room. The cost will rise to $2,015 per semester beginning in July 2013.
The increased fees will be used to partially support the cost of renovating of three campus residential buildings, Rozewski said.
The meal plan, something students living in residence halls are required to buy, will increase $40 per semester, or $2.50 a week. The current meal plan is $1,785, and will rise to $1,825 next July.