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Volume CXXXIII, Number 16 |
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Trustees approve College budget
FE VIVAS
STAFF WRITER
The Bowdoin Board of Trustees met last weekend to approve
a short list of proposals that have far-reaching effects for the future
of the College.
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| Kyle Staller '04 speaks at the student government forum with trustees as Joan Samuelson '79, Megan Faughan '02, Sheldon '74 and Dean Bradley look on. (Colin LeCroy, Bowdoin Orient) |
The first order of business was the vote for the approval
of recommendations for tenure for eligible Bowdoin faculty. Zorina Khan,
Assisant Professor of Economics, and Enrique Yepes, Assistant Professor
of Romance Languages, were both approved for promotion to the rank of
Associate Professors in their respective departments effective July 1,
2002.
The second vote of the Board of Trustees was the approval
of tuition and fees for the fiscal year 2002-2003. The Board voted to
fix the college's standard tuition at $28,070, a 5% increase from tuition
for the current fiscal year. This brings the total pricetag of a year
of tuition, room, board, and other fees at Bowdoin College to $35,990.
This tuition increase ranks Bowdoin's comprehensive fee
seventh in the 18-College Comparison Group made up of Hamilton, Amherst,
Wesleyan, Trinity, Oberlin, Mount Holyoke, Swarthmore, Vassar, Haverford,
Wheaton, Wellesley, Williams, Bryn Mawr, Smith, Bates, Colby, Connecticut,
and Middleburry. Bowdoin's tuition and fees is ranked 2nd in the comparison
group which is balanced by an 11th ranked Room and Board fee. Bowdoin's
percentage increase in comprehensive fee from last year to the upcoming
academic year held steady at 4.99% which was fifth among the group of
18 colleges.
The third vote centered on the approval of the proposed
fiscal year 2002-2003 Budget. The adopted operating budget of the College
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003, including expenditures and transfers,
totaled roughly $102.5 million.
The development of this budget plan began as early as September
2001 and was directed by the Budgetary and Financial Priorities Committee,
chaired by Associate Professor of Mathematics Rosemary Roberts and vice-chaired
by Treasurer Kent Chabotar.
The proposed budget was then turned over to the Financial
Planning Committee of Trustees for further review and revision. The committees
most impacted by budgetary changes, Academic Affairs, Admissions and Financial
Aid, Facilities, and Student Affairs, were consulted heavily throughout
the process of devising the proposed budget.
The Executive Committee, composed of the Trustee Chairs
of all of the nine Trustee Committees, then reviewed the budget and voted
to recommend it to the full Board of Trustees. Two weeks to a month after
the Executive Committee decided to recommend the proposed budget to review
by the full board, the Board of Trustees convened this month to vote on
its approval. The proposed budget passed through many hands and completed
several stages of revision before it reached the table for the vote last
weekend.
The final order of business was the vote for the appointment
of College auditors for the fiscal year 2002-2003. The Board of Trustees
appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP to perform the regular annual audit
of the College's financial statements for the fiscal year ending June
30, 2002. Berry, Dunn, McNeil, and Parker, LLC were chosen to audit the
Bowdoin College Health and Retirement Plans for the years ending December
31, 2001 and June 30, 2002 respectively.
The Board of Trustees also discussed the issue of the New
England Small College Athletic Conference and its history with admissions
of ranked atheletes. The discussion was focused on informing the trustees
and answering any questions relevant to the issue. No conclusions were
drawn from this discussion.
Per order of President Barry Mills, this year's February
meeting was characterized by a streamlining of the business portions and
increased opportunities for trustees to meet with students and faculty.
These opportunities included a discussion with the members of the Young
Alumni Leadership Program of the Class of 2002, a forum with the Student
Executive Board and Student Congress, and the inaugural Breakfast with
Faculty before trustees returned home.