The Board of Trustees opened the meeting by approving the minutes from April 18 and then moved directly into what became a lengthy and somewhat complicated discussion of the budget for 2017-2018. At issue was the proposed tuition increase of $274/year for full-time students. Two trustees, Anthony Cornachio and Michael Hilt (the student trustee) said they would not vote in favor of that increase, which would have prevented the Board from passing the budget, since there would have been no way to get the requisite six votes necessary for passage. Trustee Weiss introduced a motion to amend the budget by lowering the tuition increase to $234, which would have required taking $700,000 from the fund balance. This amendment was initially defeated but, after a lengthy discussion, the Board agreed to pass the budget with Trustee Weiss’ proposed increase. An important consideration in the Board’s willingness to impose the increase was the need, argued for Dr. Collins, to keep the 35 faculty currently on temporary lines.
The Board then approved two AS degrees, one in Marketing and the other in Sports Marketing, and they adopted Policy 1800, which governs the acceptance of gifts. Trustee Weiss then said some very kind words about the NCCFT Student Showcase, which was held on April 27th, and the Board honored Michael Hilt, whose term as student trustee has come to an end.
President’s Report
President Keen began his report by welcoming the new student trustee. (Clicking on the link will open the video in a new tab starting when Dr. Keen begins to speak.) He then said some very kind words about the creativity displayed by our students at various exhibitions and performances around the campus. The next section of his report concerned the work we are doing regarding Middle States:
- He believes the work done by the Institutional Planning Committee will help make a strong case for Middle States to remove our probationary status;
- He noted that he has assembled a team that will work over the summer to prepare the Middle States report that is due in September. A first draft is scheduled to be ready by the end of June.
Dr. Keen said he received very positive feedback from the SUNY Trustees after their meeting. He expressed his appreciation for the outgoing officers of the Academic Senate Executive Committee (ASEC), and he thanked NCCFT President Frank Frisenda, Chair of Chairs Lynn Mazzola, AFA President Stefan Krompier, as well as the outgoing ASEC officers for their work on the Governance Review Taskforce (GRTF). Finally, he congratulated Dr. Anissa Moore on her election as the next Chair of the Academic Senate.
Speaker’s List
(Click on the links to open the video in a new tab starting when each speaker began to talk.)
- Outgoing Chair of Chairs, Lynn Mazzola, expressed her thanks and said farewell to the Board.
- NCCFT President Frank Frisenda offered his perspective on this academic year.