BOT Notebook: Trustees approve state capital outlay request for Brooks Hall
Board Chair William Weideman speaks during the Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 7 in the Bovee UC.
Central Michigan University presented the state with a $28.5 million capital outlay request for the renovation of Brooks Hall.
The board approved the plan at its formal meeting Dec. 7 in its consent agenda. A capital outlay request asks the state to provide partial or total funding for a project. President George Ross said he has doubts the state will approve the request this year.
In an interview following the meeting, Barrie Wilkes, vice president of Finance and Administrative Services, said the state ranks requests from each university and a project typically requires several years to get approval. Ross added that CMU is competing with 15 public universities and more than 20 community colleges.
“Across the state, and (it’s) not specific to Central Michigan, it is going to be a challenging year for capital requests,” Ross said. “There just isn’t enough money in the state to fund all the projects. We just had one funded, so we’re trying to be realistic.”
The board also approved the following items on its consent agenda:
- Confirmed honorary degrees for Gay Ebers-Franckowiak; a former partner at Morgan Stanley, Frank Cloutier; chief of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and James O. Sawyer, former president of Macomb Community College.
- Approved two sabbatical leave changes and 41 sabbatical leaves for faculty personnel
- Accepted 2017 financial awards to the university totaling $10,189,930
- Approved changes for 13 members of charter academy boards, reauthorized one charter academy and authorized one charter academy.
