While Temple students were on Spring Break, the Board of Trustees continued its round of committee meetings before the general body meeting on Monday in Sullivan Hall. The Facilities Committee met March 5 and the Academic Affairs Committee met March 3.
The Campus Life and Diversity Committee also held a joint meeting with the Student Affairs Committee on Feb. 26.
The Facilities Committee recommended an increase of $287,000 in security spending for both Gladfelter and Anderson halls. These security measures were deemed necessary due to recent events that affected public safety last year.
On Oct. 29, a Temple professor was attacked in Anderson Hall. Campus Safety Services officials said they believe the vulnerability of this hall and its neighboring building, Gladfelter Hall, are the mezzanine entrances.
The spending will go toward installing delayed egress security hardware on exterior doors. Local audio alarms and remote security alarms will also be added for each door receiving the delayed egress, according to the capital expenditure request form.
The committee also recommended the authorization of athletic locker room renovations in Pearson and McGonigle halls, Edberg-Olson Hall and the Liacouras Center, at a cost not to exceed $1.5 million.
The committee recommended authorization for the Temple Orthopedics Group to sign a five-year lease for 2,000 square feet of space at Chestnut Hill Hospital in Northwest Philadelphia. Chestnut Hill Hospital already has a relationship with the University of Pennsylvania Community Health Network.
The Campus Life and Diversity Committee, at its joint meeting with the Student Affairs Committee on Feb. 26, recommended an average 3.8 percent increase in base room rates and an average 4.3 percent increase in meal plan prices, which was approved Monday.
Rates for single apartments in 1300 and Morgan Hall will increase the most, by 7.5 percent each. With the added fees, the residence hall charge for a single apartment in Morgan will rise above $6,000, making it the second-most expensive Temple living option, behind a single room in the housing complex for Temple’s School of Podiatric Medicine.
Freshman dormitories Johnson, Hardwick and Peabody halls will rise the least, with rate increases capped at 2.8 percent. The total charge for a two-person bedroom in any of these halls next year will be just under $3,600 a semester.
Though some new revenue will be coming in from holding academic conferences in Morgan Hall, the Office of University Housing and Residential Life still predicts a net loss of more than 65 percent after university aid.
Ken Kaiser, chief financial officer and treasurer, said the goal of the increases is to “make housing profitable by 2018.”
On March 3, the Academic Affairs Committee authorized the renaming of the department of critical languages in the College of Liberal Arts to the department of Asian and Middle Eastern languages and studies.
The critical languages department was established in 1970 when the federal government needed more citizens to be fluent in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindu and Korean. The committee said it believes the new name will better reflect the department’s function.
Other trustee committees, such as the Government Relations and External Affairs Committee and the Alumni Relations and Development Committee, met over spring break, but their meetings were in executive session, which is closed to the public.
Joe Brandt and Edward Barrenechea can be reached at news@temple-news.com.
Be the first to comment