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Printer-Friendly ModeBoard to vote on future
March 21, 2005 —
The Board of Control will vote today on resolutions planning the future and proposing more housing construction.
The Strategic Plan of Continuing Excellence: 2004-2008 will be voted on as a resolution developed by SVSU President Eric Gilbertson.
This plan features two major differences from the current five-year plan. The plan will emphasize internal program development rather than physical growth, which resulted in many of the new buildings at the University today. SVSU is expected to still grow, but at a slower pace than the boom that has happened over the last few years.
"We are looking at ways of constantly improving programs and building on existing strengths," Gilbertson says.
Another feature of the plan is the encouragement of diversity at SVSU. This will correlate with the idea of developing more internal programs such as Intercultural Night and Intercultural Food Day.
A stereotype that is often associated with diversity is that the definition only relates to ethnicity.
"Diversity is a way of thinking and viewing the world that respects and appreciates the varieties of human culture," Gilbertson says.
The University continues to experience strong demand for on-campus housing.
At this time, the returning student segment of SVSU's housing population is in excess of projections.
If the University achieves its housing target for first-year college students, then an overcapacity condition will exist again this fall.
This has caused the University to propose a resolution to the Board to approve the addition of an eighth unit of housing to the Village III Project currently underway.
The resolution will provide an additional 24 beds for the upcoming academic year.
The University is also seeking approval to add a wing that will accommodate 81 more students to the Living Center South Complex, which was opened in the fall of 2003. The estimated cost for the two projects is $4.5 million.
Total on-campus housing capacity would reach 1,977 beds upon completion of the projects.
"We will be engaged in additional planning throughout the year to determine the need and economic feasibility of future student housing projects," says James Muladore, vice president for Administration and Business Affairs at SVSU.
A resolution to approve the Parking Ordinance will also be presented.
With the current Parking and Traffic Ordinance being in effect since 1979, many of the terms, official titles, and department names in the ordinance are now obsolete due to the changes at SVSU. The parking ordinance also lists the institution as Saginaw Valley State College. All of the traffic codes have been removed from the ordinance because police officers have always written and will continue to write traffic citations under state law.
Ron Trepkowski, interim director of the University Police Department, points out that it is not required to have these traffic codes in the parking ordinance. Some of the language in the old ordinance was unclear and outdated and parking tickets were dismissed by the court in Saginaw because of this.
"The new ordinance will not change any enforcement authority we have," Trepkowski says. "It is simply bringing our parking ordinance up to the current times."
The meeting will also consist of two presentations; one about the Center for Science and Mathematics Education presented by Walter Rathkamp, and a report on University Branding and Image presented by Lucille Beuthin.
Other items on the agenda are awarding March Staff Member of the Month to Kathleen Blanchard and a motion for an informal session to discuss collective bargaining issues.