Dionte Berry
News Editor
[email protected] 

The Board of Regents convened in Heritage Hall for its quarterly spring meeting on Friday, June 4. 

The topic of tuition for the 21-22 academic year continued from the Board’s April meeting. The Board discussed and voted on a handful of other matters such as Bob Jackson’s presidency, campus renovations, budget distributions, graduation and more.

The Board started by welcoming SGA President Ian Puckett, who attended as a guest and will be sworn in as Student Regent in July 2021. 

The Board went into regular business by approving the 1,222 spring 2021 graduates. Many of the Regents expressed their appreciation for the University being able to have an in-person commencement ceremony.

“This was a major statement that we made, to pull off four live commencements like we did,” Board of Regents Chair Jerry Rhoads said. “Everything went extremely well, without a hitch.” 

Following unanimous graduation approval, the Regents moved onto the significance of this quarterly session such as the evaluation of Jackson as president and the budget for the upcoming year.

Presidential Evaluation

Jackson’s evaluation was made up by assessments from fellow Regents and his own self-assessment. His evaluation included the following: areas where he has been effective, areas for improvement, progress on goals, progress towards strategic initiatives and goals for the upcoming year.

Jackson was met with a stream of positive remarks as Rhoads read through the assessments. The remarks praised him for his leadership during the pandemic, his short-term and long-term goals and the University’s continued academic success. 

However, among the praise, he was also encouraged to strive towards greater transparency in decision making. 

The Board of Regents motioned to vote on approving the evaluation and extending Jackson’s presidential contract for another year. The Regents vote was unanimous. 

“I want to thank you all for your support and confidence and the vote,” Jackson said. “It is the most comprehensive evaluation I have been given in my professional career and I appreciate that and it was very helpful to me in many respects.”

Jackson went on to give a summary of what was to be discussed in the rest of the meeting. Part of his summary was the budget, tuition and campus renovations.

Tuition and Budget

In their last meeting the Board passed the motion to increase tuition 1% for the next academic year. The board agreed upon a .9% tuition increase for the 21-22 academic year. 

The Council on Postgraduate Education agreed on a 3% tuition increase cap until 2023. 

To ensure Murray State was maintaining its mantra of access and affordability, Jackson compared the tuition increase to that of other Kentucky universities’ rates. Murray State is still in the lower end of tuition prices against the others. 

“With a .9% increase, we are going to be the lowest or near the lowest in tuition increases,” Jackson said. “Everyone is under a great deal of financial pressure coming out of COVID-19.”

Tuition will be around $9,000 per semester; however, Jackson said students rarely ever pay the gross tuition because of scholarships and grants. 

The .9% increase will generate upwards of around $657,000 in revenue, which is important because enrollment makes up 71% of the University’s budget.

Public funding has been decreasing and in its place private funding has been the alternative. 

Finance Committee

Vice President Jacklyn Dudley continued the tuition discussion along with other budgetary topics. 

Dudley presented a $3.4 million budget increase as a part of the Executive Budget. Alongside this increase was the .9% tuition increase, and a tuition increase in the Respiratory Health Program at the Madisonville, Kentucky regional campus in spring  2022 and increases in the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). 

The Board passed the Executive Budget for the next academic year.

Following the budget was the Doris Wood Seney gift. Seney attended Murray State as a non-traditional student and graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor’s degree in biology. Throughout her career she always supported students with donations and was a part of the Alumni Association. 

Seney left a gift of around $730,000 for Murray State department of biological sciences and the Jesse D. Jones College of Science Engineering and Technology. 

With the gift, the department made plans to use it as a quasi endowment for students, and the plans were voted on and unanimously passed by the Board. 

Building and Grounds Committee 

The Director of Facilities Management Jason Youngblood went over campus renovations and their expected finish dates.

Blackburn Science Building’s renovations have finished and now campus groups such as the Veterans Affairs and the English Second Language program are moving in and getting situated. The building is now home to the first and only lactation room on campus.

Lovett Auditorium is having renovations for bigger and more comfortable seating. Students and staff are already anticipating the grand reopening upon the renovation’s conclusion in September 2021.. . 

Wells Hall and Wilson Hall are both having their windows replaced and both projects are expected to be finished during the fall. 

The Curris Center is set to have renovations for a new boiler room and a dishwashing machine for the Thoroughbred Room. 

Pogue Library, Industry and Technology Building and the Nash House all require roof restorations. 

Lastly, there has been a five-year plan to update street and parking lot lights with LED lights. 

All of the previous plans have already been voted on and implementation is underway.

Youngblood presented the $1.2 million Bond Project which is an agenda for giving some campus buildings an update. The ideas proposed were a Curris Center refresh and replacing the Wrather’s Auditorium stage since it has become unusable.

The Board unanimously approved the $1.2 million Bond Project.

Academic Excellence and Scholarly Activities Committee

The committee started by talking about the expectations for the fall 2021 semester and the academic calendar.

“The key theme of the fall of 2021 is to look like the fall of 2019 and this is what this academic calendar looks like,” Provost Tim Todd said. “Classes begin in the middle of August and we will have a normal Labor Day Break, Fall Break, Thanksgiving Break and for the spring semester we will have Spring Break.”

The next point of business was approving the Board of Regents Teaching Excellence Awards. 

The Board unanimously approved the recipients Patty Parish from the College of Business, Justin Brogan, Jie Wu and Diane Nititham from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Laura Sullivan-Beckers, Kevin Revell and Donald Adongo from the College of Science and David Ferguson from the School of Agriculture. 

The Board then unanimously approved and recognized professor emeritus designations.

The designations were approved for Barbra Cobb and Dale Ray Phillips from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Scott Erickson from the Music Department, Stephen Cobb, Jay Zirbel and Hamid Kobraei from the College of Science, David Ferguson from the School of Agriculture, Seid Hassan from the College of Business and Allen White from the Journalism Department. 

The next matter was awarding faculty tenure. The following faculty were unanimously awarded tenure by the Board:

• Nancy Armstrong: School of Nursing
• Justin Brogan: Clinical Mental Health Counselling Program Director
• Traci Byrd: College of Science Engineering and Technology 
• Cindy Clemson: College of Education
• Amanda Davis: School of Agriculture
• Antje Gamble: School of Fine Arts 
• Daniel Harris: College of Business 
• Jacob Hildebrant: College of Science Engineering and Technology  
• Cemil Kuzey: College of Business
• Sarah Lefebvre: College of Business 
• Tonia Mailow: School of Nursing 
• Azaher Molla: Applied Health and Sciences
• Kemaly Parr: College of Education
• Laura Sullivan-Beckers
• Rebecca Williams: College of Humanities and Fine Arts 
  

Student Success Committee

Don Robertson, Shawn Smee and Renee Fister presented enrollment data for the summer and fall 2021 semester to the Board. 

They compared numbers for the fall 2021 semester to that of fall 2019 and fall 2020. Overall there is a higher enrollment total, retention and amount of first-time freshmen. 

Compared to 2019, housing assignments are up 25%. Scholarship applications are also up 6.5% from 2019.

Beyond reporting new data, recruitment was also a topic of discussion. With a decrease of COVID-19 cases in Kentucky, the Office of Recruitment is pushing towards more in-person interactions to get students to come to Murray State. 

The office has adapted to text and email campaigns, and now they are back to visiting high schools in order to recruit. 

Athletics Committee

Athletic Director Kevin Saal gave the Board an update on Racer Athletics. 

To promote good academic performance in the athletic department, Saal put in place a challenge called the Racer Road Challenge. 

All the athletics are put into three categories: the Horseshoe Division, Racer Division and the Shield Division. The sports are put into the divisions depending on their academic performances and roster size. 

The group in each division with the highest cumulative GPA will get a prize and a trophy.

Along with academics in the athletics department the Board also discussed Saal’s role as athletic director and that of coaches in the department. 

The Board unanimously voted on extending Saal’s contract to 2025. Along with Saal, Murray State baseball’s head coach, Dan Skirka, and softball’s head coach, Kara Amundson,  both had their contracts extended to 2023. 

Head Football Coach Dean Hood and Head Soccer Coach Matt Lodge were also in attendance and were recognized as coach of the year by the Board.

The next Board of Regents meeting is scheduled for September 2021.