State appropriations for EKU decreased 6.4 percent ($4.6 million) in the Commonwealth’s 2012-13 biennial budget. (All public institutions are faced with the same percentage of budget reductions to their state appropriations.)

The budget does not include an across-the-board salary increase for faculty and staff. It incorporates a 5 percent tuition increase for undergraduate tuition for Kentucky residents. EKU’s tuition rate continues to rank in the middle of the pack among four-year public universities in Kentucky.

In other business, the Board:

• Heard a report from Tom Coffey, representing the EKU Foundation, about the status of Arlington. Coffey said closing the fine dining segment of Arlington earlier this year has allowed the facility to concentrate on other areas and once again turn a profit. Although 62 members (mostly fine dining only) were lost with the closure, 31 new, full-pay members have joined, “so revenue has actually increased,” Coffey said. “We’re in a good position now, and we’re pretty darned excited about it.” The Arlington house is still open for private and catered events. Arlington is wholly owned by the Foundation.
• Heard a report from Dr. Libby Wachtel, acting vice president for enrollment management, marketing and university relations, who said preliminary fall enrollment numbers are encouraging. Undergraduate enrollment is up approximately 1 percent over the same time last year. Wachtel noted that, in order to meet demand among incoming freshmen, an additional summer orientation session was added this year for the first time in three years.
• Approved the naming of three facilities: the Dr. William Berge Oral History Center in John Grant Crabbe Library; Vickers Green, the area adjacent to the former Vickers Village housing area, for John Vickers; and the Harold (Hal) Z. Holmes Exercise Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science.

Earlier, at its April 26 board meeting:

• The Board approved a merger of the non-resident and targeted rates into one rate for out-of-state students. Non-resident undergraduates will now pay $8,232, still more than double the resident tuition rate of $3,660.
• Approved a 5 percent increase in residence hall rates and a 3.5 percent increase in meal plan rates. Tuition for Model Laboratory School students will increase 5 percent for nursery through eighth-grade and 6 percent for grades 9-12.
• Gave their approval to a new doctoral degree program (the university’s third) in occupational therapy. Designed for students currently employed as occupational therapists, the program is intended to create occupation-based practitioners who will serve in leadership roles, enhance the regional effectiveness of occupational therapy services, affect educational and health care policy, and act as catalysts for excellence in intervention settings. It is expected that the doctoral program, which will go before the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education for final approval in June, will begin offering classes in Spring 2013.