Fees, increases passed at Board of Trustees meeting

Students will pay more to attend CMU beginning this fall.
A 3-percent tuition increase, a $25 per semester building-initiative fee and raises in parking fine rates were approved by the Board of Trustees Thursday.
The board, meeting in the President's Conference Room in the Bovee University Center, approved the new rates for the 2000-01 academic year. Undergraduate resident students will pay $108.15 per credit hour next year, up from $105, while the rate for an undergraduate out-of-state student rose from $272.50 to $280.70. The board approved a room and board rate increase of 4.5 percent in March.
"We are still ranked 14 out of 15 public universities for the lowest cost in the state. That's an unbelievable value," said Trustee Roger Kesseler, chair of the Finance and Personnel Committee.
University President Leonard Plachta, attending his last board meeting, thanked Rep. Sandy Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, and the trustees for their hard work in obtaining a 10-percent increase in state funding for CMU for next year.
University President Designate Michael Rao, attending his first board meeting, made a suggestion to change the language in an objective in the board's vision statement for CMU.
The objective reads: "CMU will continue to seek equitable state funding on behalf of its students; by the year 2005, CMU's state appropriations per full-time equivalent student will be no less than the median state appropriation per full-time student for all public universities in Michigan."
To improve doctoral and other programs, Rao said the objective should state that CMU's state appropriations per full-time equivalent student will exceed the median state appropriations.
Rao officially becomes president Aug. 1.
Although Plachta had recommended a $100 per student per semester campus-improvement fee before CMU's state allocations were announced June 23, the board Thursday approved a rate of $25 per student per semester.
The combined tuition and fees increase for a full-time undergraduate resident student is 4 percent. Caul added language to next year's higher-education budget that penalizes schools 1.5 percent of their state funding if they increase tuition and fees more than 4 percent.
Kesseler said money from the building-initiative fee could be used as a basis for borrowing further funds in the future.
"This is a down payment, or a start. And it stays within the state guidelines," he said.
Plachta also said the fee is "a worthy cause" that lets CMU begin planning and allows future borrowing for many of the 14 building initiatives he listed in a May report. Top items in the report include a new Health Professions building, renovating the lobby of the Public Broadcasting building to include a Welcome Center and constructing a new baseball complex and demolishing the current one.
Higher parking fines and parking decals take effect Aug. 28, the first day of the fall semester. Unauthorized persons parking in a handicapped parking space will be fined $100, up from $75. Amendments to the parking ordinance also include raises in all other parking fines.
These include raises from $8 to $25 for tickets paid within seven days, and $16 to $35 for those paid after one week. Also, rates for metered parking space violations rose from $5 to $10 and $10 to $20.
"This is a walking, or pedestrian campus. This will only enhance that," Kesseler said of the more costly parking fines.
"We get clobbered up here just about every meeting that there's not enough parking. Good planning and taking the time to find a spot works," Trustee Sid Smith said.
Residents of CMU housing who park in designated lots of university housing units will now pay $50 per year for their parking decals, up from $25.
Chief Financial Officer Kim Ellertson said officials will ensure that students are aware of the new rates when they purchase decals, and signs that warn drivers of possible parking fines may also be used. He added that the $50 price tag for on-campus residents is still low compared to the $100 off-campus students must pay each year.
The increased rates are part of an effort to help open up campus parking spots. Ellertson said the new rates are appropriate because they are based on survey results of 30 rural universities of similar size to CMU.
"We want to be more diligent with enforcement and also want to restrict the movement of residence-hall students to the lots where they reside," Ellertson said.
The board also approved a three-year contract with RuffaloCODY Co. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a firm that specializes in telephone fund raising for non-profit organizations. Starting in the fall semester, the firm will work from the Carlin Alumni House and coordinate and manage CMU's on-campus phonathon programs.
RuffaloCODY will provide a fully-automated telephone fund-raising program and will hire and train CMU student callers. After three years, CMU will manage the programs and will have an option to purchase the CAMPUSCALL automation system from RuffaloCODY.
The project cost is capped at $380,000 annually. Expenses of the RuffaloCODY program will be paid from the University Advancement Office's 2000-01 operating budget, and CMU officials expect an increase in phonathon proceeds will help.
"This looks like a cost but, based on the statistics we're looking at, it will actually improve the income flow, so it will be a net, positive addition to our bottom line," Kesseler said.
The board also approved the installation of a satellite uplink at PBS, at a cost not to exceed $200,000. Potential uses of the uplink include community and rural health education, programming for continuing professional education, programming for distance-learning initiatives, teleconferences hosted on campus, athletic events and music or drama performances.
PBS Director Ed Grant said the uplink will allow CMU campus programming to be communicated anywhere.
"It really connects CMU with the rest of the world. For example, it will give opportunities for CMU faculty to provide comments on world events, like the low water levels of the Great Lakes, to other news media immediately. So there's the opportunity to communicate and be present in other parts of the world."
Three quarters of the funding for the uplink are expected to come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, while 25 percent would come from the university's capital construction reserve. If grant funding is denied, all funding would come from the capital construction reserve.
Grant said the uplink should be in service in a month or two.