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Miami University trustees voted Friday, Sept. 19, to raise room and board fees for 2009-2010 by 5.11 percent, bringing the rate for a double room and typical 21-meal plan to $9,458 from $8,998 this year. Based on cost analysis and discussions with suppliers, Miami anticipates a 9 percent increase in the cost of food for 2009-2010.
The university usually sets room and board rates one year in advance so that current students can compare costs between on- and off-campus housing options. Individual costs for room and board will vary, depending on which housing and meal plans are chosen.
President David Hodge and Vice President for Finance and Business Services David Creamer thanked the staff who, following significant wind damage to campus on Sunday, put in strong efforts to light, feed, protect, inform and otherwise support the university.
Creamer also updated the trustees on the university budget and was able to tell them that higher education and Miami University were largely exempted from the state budget cuts announced by Governor Strickland last week.
Trustees received a final report of the Presidential Task Force on Environmental Sustainability, a group that assembled last year and whose five subcommittees established goals in the area of energy use; sustainable architecture and landscape design; procurement and waste management; academic integration; and community outreach. Task force co-chair Tom Klak, professor of geography, reported the group's recommendation that the university hire a sustainability coordinator and create a standing sustainability committee to accomplish lasting efficiencies and energy savings.
Trustees voted to approve these resolutions:
* Adoption of energy efficiency and conservation guidelines, recommended by the state, to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent per gross square foot for all of Miami University's campuses by 2014 compared to the fiscal year 2004.
* Re-authorization to participate in the Local Administration Competency Certification Program, which allows a university to administer its own capital facilities projects, following certain reporting and compliance rules.
* Authorization of reimbursement from future debt issues.
* Authorization to award contracts for the central campus water and sewer modification project, not to exceed $1.1 million.
* Authorization to award contracts for the central campus electrical modifications project, not to exceed $3.19 million.
Debi Allison, interim vice president for information technology, reported that 72 percent of the first-year class purchased laptops through Miami's Notebook Program, with 63 percent of them buying MacIntoshes over PCs. A survey of cell phone ownership showed that 64 percent of all students owned smart phones (those with computer-like capabilities) this year vs. 6.5 percent last year.
Jayne Whitehead, vice president for university advancement, reported the university's For Love and Honor campaign has reached $338.7 million.
In other business, trustees appointed Fred Wall, Kay Geiger and Don Crain to a nominating committee for board officers for calendar year 2009 and re-elected Beverly Thomas to the associate treasurer's position at the university, to have full authority in the absence of the treasurer.
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