Ohio University Board of Trustees will meet March 12 and 13 to focus on creating a scholarship fund and approving several construction projects.
The board will vote to move forward with the demolition of the President Street Academic Center, located across from Bentley Hall and next to Copeland Hall.
Athens Historic Preservation Commission has protested the center's demolition, citing the building's historic value, according to media reports.
According to the board's agenda, the Center, which was taken "offline" in 2003, needs to be replaced because the university wants a building with "larger, flexible, multi-purpose spaces with high ceilings."
OU-HCOM
Though students in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine might be paying more for their education next year, the board will vote on creating a $3 million scholarship, which will focus on "minority and disadvantaged students."
Students at OU-HCOM might see tuition and an academic fees increase by 5 percent if the board approves the increase at its meeting.
If the OU-HCOM tuition increases pass, in-state students will pay an additional $1,574 and out-of-state students will pay an additional $2,224.
University officials plan to raise HCOM's tuition by 5 percent until 2020.
Construction
Trustees will vote on a resolution to increase the $31,896,800 budget to renovate and add on to McCracken Hall by around $900,000, bringing the total budget to $32,798,000.
The project will be funded mostly by external debt and gifts.
Trustees will consider the extension of Rufus Street, formerly South Green Drive, to Stewart Street, on the south end of campus.
The proposed road will help residents at the River Park apartments access university roads. River Park is also asking a water line for one of its new apartment complexes.
The deal, of which details were limited in the agenda, could involve River Park giving part of its parking space to the university and/or involve River Park paying OU to extend the road and provide a water line.
The agenda did not provide a proposed cost for the project, but said additional materials will be available at the meeting.
"The university is working to finalize this transaction and present it to the board for approval at the March meeting," according to the agenda.
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