Trustees assemble for annual meeting

Board approves 5.96 percent tuition increase, considers establishing law school pending financial support

Jay Dorne / Asst. News Editor

The Board of Trustees approved a new budget plan, set tuition fees and established a committee to collect funds for a potential law school during their annual visit to campus this week.

The 2004-05 budget plan includes major investments in academic programs, new faculty positions and resources and various campus-development projects. The budget provides funding for 13 new full-time faculty positions and allocates $223,000 for library development and new technology spending.

Trustees announced a 5.96 percent increase in tuition, room and board for next year. The increase will bring the total cost of tuition and fees to $17,555. Room and board fees will be $6,010. Funding for student research was expanded, as was student access to increased scholarship funding and study abroad grants.

New construction plans approved for this summer include a recreation complex with playing fields and a baseball diamond, phase two of the residence hall air conditioning project and a pedestrian walkway project to be completed on Haggard Avenue.

President Leo Lambert announced the board’s decision to endorse the concept of establishing a law school, on the condition that adequate funds are collected, at a press conference Wednesday.

The board made its decision after hearing a Phase II report from Provost Gerald Francis and the law school feasibility task force, which determined a law school is viable and that downtown Greensboro would be the best location for it.

The board established a committee to assemble about $10 million in outside funding over a 60-day period. Elon is ready to contribute $3 million of its own.

Lambert said the $10 million would go toward the cost of capital and backstop the red ink generated by the start up of a law school.

Jim Melvin, a former mayor of Greensboro and current president of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, made a presentation to the board regarding his efforts to gather resources in the city, suggesting the former Central Library as a possible facility.

Lambert said that he does not want to siphon resources from undergraduate studies, but a law school would take 3 to 4 years to become totally self-sustained.

Two months is adequate time to determine if there is enough support for the law school, Lambert said.