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Summer 2010 Board Report

Date: May 24, 2010
Contact: pr@andrews.edu
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Faculty and staff gathered in the Garber Auditorium on Monday, May 17 for the routine briefing by President Niels-Erik Andreasen of the summer meeting of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Andreasen noted this summer’s Board meeting came earlier than usual due to the General Conference session.
  
Andreasen reported Ron Whitehead, assistant to the president for spiritual life, gave a brief video report of the 2010 Easter Passion Play including the number of volunteers and guests for the Easter Passion Play.
  
The President’s and Provost’s Report to the Board overviewed recent campus happenings including an update on accreditation. 
  
Larry Schalk, vice president for Financial Administration, reported on operations up to the end of March, which is 11 months of operations into the fiscal year. The recovery of endowment investments are at $7.5 million. Andrews is currently $1.2 million behind budget due to low milk prices and a shortfall in performance to budget in auxiliary services. Investment income increased to $7.6 million since March 2009.
  
Schalk also reported on the financials of the Undergraduate Learning Center project. Andrews has taken out a tax exempt 10-year bond of $14.2 million at a fixed rate 4.59 percent. Due to regulations for building loans for a religious purpose, a taxable loan of $2.25 million at a variable interest rate of 2.16 percent was taken out for the part of construction related to the Department of Religion & Biblical Languages. A third loan, a taxable loan of $3.15 million at 4.77 percent fixed rate, is set up on a payment plan of 10 years. At the end of those 10 years, Andrews will need to decide what do to with the estimated remaining balance of $5-7 million. Andreasen pointed out this is not a mortgage; these are bonds. The Office of Development has a goal to raise $5 million to help off-set those bonds and it is anticipated these funds will be used to pay off a portion of the remaining balance of the taxable loans.
  
Stephen Payne, vice president for Enrollment Management, reported overall admissions are ahead of last year by 2% and applications are up 10%. FTIAC admissions are up 6% and applications are up 4%. Andreasen said, “Our long-term plan is to grow the enrollment. We have applications, admissions and matriculations. Our plan is to grow matriculations about 2% per year. So far, admission-wise, we are on track for that.” Andreasen also said there is a discrepancy between applications and admissions in first time grad students, due in part to incomplete applications, i.e., a missing transcript, etc. For the rest, a letter will be going out from the graduate dean to departments who admit graduate students, encouraging them to complete their processes so applicants can be admitted. 
  
Provost Bill Richardson reported to the Board on the process of achieving rank, promotion and tenure (or continuous appointment). This report was in fulfillment of a recent recommendation from the Governance Committee of the Board of Trustees to have informational presentations about University processes to the Board.
 
Then came the action items on the Board’s agenda. First, the Board voted some capital requests including new furniture for Meier Hall rooms, new windows for Meier Hall and a new motorcoach.
 
Next, Dr. Andreasen read to faculty and staff the same statement he presented to the Board regarding a motion for endorsement of a request. It read: "Since our last board meeting, first the Michigan Conference and later the Lake Union Conference committees voted to adjust the Michigan Conference subsidy to Andrews University downward from 5% of tithe to 3.6% of tithe. The current financial impact on Andrews is $400,000 annually. Andrews University has requested the assistance of the Lake Union Conference in exploring ways to implement that change over a two-year period in a step down process, at 50% this fiscal year and 50% next. Don Livesay, president of the Lake Union and vice chair of the Board, supported the request for assistance and suggested Andrews ask the Board for formal endorsement of the request."
Andreasen explained the reason this needed to be brought before the Board was due to the short lead time before the reduction in subsidy goes into effect. The Board voted to endorse the request. 
 
The final action item was the introduction of the proposed alliance of Griggs University and Andrews University. Board member Ella Simmons, who is also a General Conference vice president, chair of the Griggs University Board and chair of a Griggs study committee set up last October, gave a presentation on the proposal. Board discussion, which was endorsed by several Board members, was to look not only at the tertiary part of Griggs University but also the potential as a feeder line of recruitment to Andrews University. Due to this, the motion authorizing Administration to look at Griggs at the collegiate level was amended: "In response to the GC action of April 6, 2010, the Board of Trustees authorizes Andrews University to examine the proposal contained in this action to evaluate all persons and aspects of an implementation plan and prepare a report for implementation to the General Conference Annual Council in October 2010." (The amendment:) "The Board authorizes Andrews to explore, in consultation with the GC, the most feasible strategy for the primary and secondary part of Griggs, the view to keeping all aspects of keeping current operations together." The amendment was voted. According to Andreasen, if the report includes the alignment of the two institutions, the response from Andrews will be presented for ratification by the Andrews Board of Trustees at the Oct. 2010 meeting. The Andrews University committee to examine the proposal will be chaired by Emilio Garcia-Marenko, vice president for academic administration until Provost Andrea Luxton arrives to campus. At that time, Luxton will chair the committee.
  
A brief report from the President’s Council, which is a driving force behind establishing fund-raising priorities for Andrews University, indicated they endorse the initiative to look at the Griggs Proposal. The Board was also introduced to the new co-chair of the President’s Council, Chuck Randall. He serves alongside co-chair Paul Stokstad, who is also a trustee.
  
The Board also approved a number of faculty and staff appointments:
Faculty Appointments
College of Arts & Sciences: Patrice Jones, assistant professor of communication; Timothy Newkirk, assistant professor of medical laboratory science; Melissa Ponce-Rodas, assistant professor of psychology.

Promotion-in-Rank and Continuous Appointments

College of Arts & Sciences: Sonia Badenas, assistant professor, Department of International & Modern Languages; Stefanie Elkins, associate professor, Department of Art & Design; Joon Hyuk Kang, full professor, Department of Mathematics; Kenneth Logan, full professor, Department of Music; John Markovic, chair and full professor, Department of History & Political Science; Susan Murray, professor emeritus, Department of Behavioral Science; Pedro  Navia, full professor, Department of International & Modern Languages
College of Technology: Hyun Kwon, associate professor, Department of Engineering & Computer Science
School of Architecture: Ariel Solis, assistant professor
School of Business Administration: Alan Kirkpatrick, associate professor, Department of Accounting, Economics & Finance

Staff Appointments

Christon Arthur, dean, School of Graduate Studies & Scholarly Research; Jasmine Johnson, training & development coordinator, Office of Human Resources; Lynn Merklin, director, University Assessment; Teela Ruehle, PC support specialist, ITS;

Change in Position Title

Jason Webster, marketing manager

Retirements
Thomas Baker, Andrews Academy, 34 years of University service; Merle Bascom, Financial Administration, 23 year of University service; Marilyn Bender, Department of Theology & Christian Philosophy, 15 years of University service; Grace Carlos, Department of Chemistry, 12 years of University service; Phyllis Collins, Department of Nursing, 11 years of University service; Susan Murray, Department of Behavioral Science, 24 years of University service; John Stout, Office of Scholarly Research, 41 years of University service.  
-Written by Keri Suarez, media relations specialist, Office of Integrated Marketing & Communication

 
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Berrien Springs, Michigan 49104