In attendance: USF Lakeland Campus Board Acting Chairperson Carole Philipson; Board Chairperson John Ramil via conference phone; Board Members John Frost and Kelly Underhill, Vice President/CEO and Corporate Secretary Preston Mercer, and University President Judy Genshaft.

Once the conference call to John Ramil had been initiated and he was on the line, Acting Board Chairperson Carole Philipson called the meeting to order and moved directly to the agenda items that required action by the board members.

Approval of Minutes

Ms. Philipson asked the Board members for any corrections to the meeting minutes of the April 22, 2004. There were no corrections. Kelly Underhill motioned to accept the minutes as written, and there was a second to the motion by John Ramil. Board members voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the April 22, 2004 meeting. The minutes of the May 26, 2004 meeting were presented for correction. There were no corrections. Kelly Underhill motioned to accept the minutes as written, and there was a second to this motion by John Frost. Board members voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the May 26, 2004 meeting.

Capital Investment Trust Fund Allocation

Ms. Philipson requested the members to move to Agenda item 8 regarding the Capital Investment trust fund allocation, which requires Board approval. John Bresler was called to present discussion regarding the allocation requiring a vote of the board members. The Capital Investment Trust Fund is collected at the State level through collection of state fees. This is based on a percentage of 3-year student credit hours average from fiscal years 2000-01, 2001-02, and 2002-03. The Lakeland campus agrees with this method and does concur with the budget office in its use. The CIT funds require the explicit involvement of USF students and the Lakeland campus has requested the Student Government involvement as a representative body. Out of the expected allocation of $304,869, a $125,000 allocation for a shared childcare project with Polk Community College, Travis Vocational Tech, represented by the Polk County School Board, has been requested with the remaining balance held for future student capital growth. Mr. Ramil asked how long the remaining balance can be kept and Mr. Bresler indicated that the CIT funds are accumulated at the state level and distributed to the universities and community colleges. President Genshaft indicated that once the distribution is made, the funds may be held until such time as they are needed to be spent because the state has a rule that universities cannot request PECO funds to build a student union and is important to hold in reserve as much as possible for bonding purposes later on if possible in order to build a student union that one day Lakeland will want. Mr. Bresler requested that the Board approve the pending allocation of $125,000. Ms. Philipson as for discussion after which John Frost moved to accept the request to allocate the $125,000 for a shared child care project with PCC, USF Lakeland, and Travel Vocational Tech. which was seconded by Kelly Underhill. The Board vote was unanimous.

Opening Remarks

Dr. Mercer welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the Board meeting and noted that many are away on summer vacations.

President’s Report

President Genshaft welcomed Greg Paveza to USF Lakeland. He is serving as the Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and asked him to talk to the group about his background. Dr. Paveza indicated he came to the University of South Florida about 10 years ago in October of this year at the Florida Mental Health Institute and then transferred to the School of Social Work in 1998. He has taught on the Lakeland campus in Social Work Program and is looking forward to being back on this campus and working with this campus, working with Preston Mercer and Provost Khator and to help take Lakeland where it is going. He also was President of the Faculty Senate body on the Tampa Campus for 2 years. The past year was spent at the Northern Illinois University as an American Council on Education Fellow working directly with the President of NIU, John Peters. The President then indicated that Curtis Wienker is retiring and Dr. Paveza’s return to USF was timely. She then explained that the American Council on Education, which is THE umbrella organization for all of higher education, has a program for about 40 years. Approximately 25 individuals from across the nation, who wish to go into administration and in order to have a good intern experience, are selected for the ACE experience each year. Dr. Paveza requested he be considered for this and applied to ACE and was selected. One of the requirements is that once the internship is completed, the fellow must return to the institution afterwards because there is cost to the institution to support the faculty member while they are away but the experience gives a person an overview of the whole university so that the dynamics can be understood. She indicated that Dr. Paveza, having had the ACE experience can contribute in a meaningful way to USF and particularly USF Lakeland with regard to the academic side of the house. Mr. Ramil welcomed Dr. Paveza.

SUS and the Board of Governors in particular asked that each university develop a 10 year enrollment plan by major and this forced all the universities to look at where they are presently and to create a plan for how each will move forward. President Genshaft said that what was revealed is that in 10 years USF will have somewhere between 80 to 100,000 students on all our campuses. The enrollment will shift more to the graduate students and there should be four times as many in 10 years than at the present time. This is important to a research university to have more emphasis on graduate education. At the undergraduate level, a higher full time FTE is indicated, i.e. more students taking course load that allows them to graduate in a five or six year period. We have been a commuter campus but this trend will need to change somewhat. Along with this, major changes will occur on Lakeland campus, as they have been occurring on the St. Petersburg campus, which now has a 4-year program rather than 2-year (Junior/Senior) program. Next year St. Pete will begin to build residence halls. She indicated that what she was describing might be visionary for the future of the USF Lakeland campus as well, particularly with the land acquisition that we will be able to someday call ours and the growth is such that we have to determine along the way whether we can sustain that kind of a campus. With the building of residence halls, service and other student life experiences, including student unions, have to be developed as well. In the meantime, there was a bill in the Legislature last session that looked at several community colleges moving to 4-year institutions, so there are a lot of dynamics occurring statewide and it is important that these trends be watched carefully and that USF is in a position to act favorably on all of our USF campuses and that is what President Genshaft is preparing to do. Mr. Frost asked where the resident students are coming from in St. Petersburg. Some are coming from St. Petersburg and while they have almost 5,000 students on that campus, they anticipate growth to 10,000 and will start to recruit out of state as well. This is a campus of choice for those students who like a small campus rather than a 34,000-student campus. The history of the St. Pete campus was looked at as a campus that could be a 10,000-student campus but because the regional campuses were not able to thrive for a few years, the growth has now just been actively pursued by engaging in community development and student development as well. High school graduations are going to be up in Florida and higher education needs to be there and ready for that influx of students. Summer 2004 student enrollment has done well. The Medical School Dean and Vice President search and the Public Health Dean search will be complete in the next couple of weeks.

John Ramil apologized to the group but had to take leave of the meeting to attend to a business matter and excused himself.

USF/PCC Joint-Use Facility Update

Dr Mercer indicated to the group that while the building was in the planning stage, the cost of that building was going up at approximately $3,000 per day! Debbie Gula, Assistant Director of Budgets and Auxiliary Services, and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Joint-Use Facility, assured the Board members that the final outcome was positive. She indicated she would be representing Dr. Mackey who is attending a conference this week. Good news is that the budget for the new building is in balance after many weeks and hours at the negotiating table. The important issues driving the building budget are as follows:

First, construction manager cost estimate was $4M over budget. Using a value engineering approach with the construction and architectural team, some of the solutions to this deficit are:

Alternative retention pond solution: Civil engineers developed an alternative to the more permanent solution that had been proposed. The resulting savings was $350,000 and the consensus was that this would be a good solution for the current building project and would have no problem in the permitting phase.

Central Energy Plant Building was eliminated and improved on existing structure and have alternative design solutions. There were numerous items on the list to be reviewed and by using the value engineering approach; the deficit was reduced to about $1M.

The next step was to look at programmatic changes. PCC shifted its labs from the renovated space into the new building, which resulted in about $.5M savings for them. USF Lakeland wished to protect the footprint and the programs that were already in the new building and instead worked for cost savings in the renovated space project, which is the LLC building on this campus.

With these concessions the architectural team was given the green light to proceed, given that the budget was balanced and all were in agreement as to the changes that were needed. The next phase will be the Design Document Development. That phase should be complete by the end of July 2004.

The occupancy of the building is still scheduled for the beginning of Fall Semester 2006. The rest of this year will be used for permitting, bidding and there will be some on site construction by the end of 2004 or January 2005. In conclusion, for the new building, the entire 33,000 sq feet has been retained. Along with that is another budget for furniture, fixtures and equipment. Polk Community College is having to use some of that money to balance their construction budget. USF chose not to do that but instead the current estimate of need is a little over $3M and what is in the budget now is $1.9M. There will be a need for an additional $1.2M to completely furnish and outfit the building with all the heavy technology needs and that will likely be sought through advancement efforts. President Genshaft asked if the $1.2M deficit was for both PCC and USF and Ms. Gula explained that the $1.2M deficit was on the USF side and that PCC had an equivalent shortfall they would have to make up as well.

Once the new building is complete the renovation will begin as a second phase. Occupancy of the renovated LLC spaceisODY anticipated in January 2007. As design contingencies might be released there is hope that they will still be fully intact with all of the contingency funds there and available. That was a priority for USF that these funds not be sacrificed at the beginning of the project. As we find savings, the scope of the renovation project would be enhanced as money became available. Working with PCC, USF Lakeland is in the process of developing an alternate list for the things that are important to each institution that may be able to be retuned to the scope of the project should savings be realized. Ms. Philipson asked for questions from the board members. She then asked if the $3.1M is for the new portion and Ms. Gula indicated that it would be for the entire project, which includes technology as well as furniture and fixtures and covers both the new construction and renovated space projects. The entire scope of the project has not been detailed but the hope is that if fewer walls were moved, there would still be funds for refurbishment of the spaces and technology upgrades. Ms Philipson also asked if the construction manager will also be doing construction estimates at the end of design development and the answer was yes and that it would happen within the next several months as a GMP(guaraneteed maximum price) contract is developed. A firm price will be developed within the next four to five months.

USF Lakeland Campus Update

Dr. Mercer indicated that the new joint use facility will almost double the space we have on this campus. The need for space due to student numbers is immediate and how the campus will manage between now and Fall 2006 occupancy is problematic. Because of the increase in student numbers the funding to the campus has been increased. All of the University Presidents worked hard with the Legislature to achieve this increased funding, which will allow for more faculty hires.Teaching in Lakeland is taking place at seven or eight locations currently and more space is needed. By the time of occupancy the space will have been outgrown and it will be time to think about a new campus. A study done indicates that the new campus is within a one hour’s drive of a potential 550,000 students. After a number of iterations the parties are at a point where there is mutual agreement with the Williams Company and the first phase of the buildout of 172 acres can actually hold about 16,000 students with proper planning. The projection in the next 10 years is approximately 10,000 students but could accommodate more in that first phase. There is additional land that can be developed for the future growth as well. Building the buildings, access to parking and greenspace are all priorities to have a nice campus that people enjoy being on. The future may require that planning for residence halls be undertaken as well. There will be development of homesites, retail and business adjacent to the new campus so it is a good location for a new campus. Our main business is education and we are happy to have Greg join us after Curtis Wienker left to go back to teaching in the fall after four months. Educational opportunities for Central Florida is what this campus does and there are a lot of opportunities and working with our colleagues in Tampa, new programs and being developed as rapidly as possible at the same time meeting the needs in a rapid response way that is actually required for a regional campus. Assuming that the budget is approved and the funding becomes available for the 170 FTEs that have been promised so that we can hire between 10 and 15 new faculty. An all day planning session next week will flesh out the details so that the searches can begin and the foundation for the next phase of growth for the Lakeland campus can be laid, determining what programs need to be enhanced, what programs need to be developed and infrastructure development for the next 50 years, while being careful and judicious about how the funds are spent and to lay the appropriate administrative foundation to be able to handle that. Dr. Mercer shared with the group that he had just come back from a national conference of regional branch campus administrators and there are about 1500 regional campuses in the country now and everyone is struggling with the same issues of growth, faculty issues, tenure and program issues, budget issues and their relationship to the main campus. The fact that a new campus is planned for Lakeland is well known around the country. It is not often that a university can build an entire new campus.

Enrollment Projections/Graduation Rates

Dr.Alice Murray presented a number of charts to the Board members which represent a 10 year enrollment head count projection broken down by programs as well as graduation rates based on these head counts as mandated by the Board of Governors. She explained that the projections can be adjusted each year to more accurately reflect growth that occurs but for purposes of planning it is important to have these projections to guide the facilities and staff planning processes over the next 10 years. This is not a new exercise as projections have consistently been done in the past but this is the first time there was a mandate to prepare head count enrollments and degrees awarded by level and programs by CIP Codes through 2014. Both on campus and off campus projections were done. This information was provided to the Board members before the meeting and incorporated herein by reference. As the USF Lakeland campus continues to grow off site facilities have been used to deliver classes to the students. This will continue to be the trend. At the 10 year mark, a 4,916 FTE (Full Time Equivalency) is projected, with 4,400 at the undergraduate level and remainder at the graduate level. That equals approximately 9,800 headcount (headcount to enrollment ratio is approximately 2.6), and as the campus moves more toward a full blown 4 year campus environment with Freshman and Sophomore students once the new campus is completed, that ratio changes as well. Because there are more non-traditional students enrolled at Lakeland who take fewer courses per semester they are considered part time students. The ratio will change once a 4-year environment with opportunity for students to be full time occurs. That is reflected on the pages of the projections as well.

Graduation rates were projected to increase in annual graduations for a grand total of 250 over the next year or so and gradually reach 2,200 by 2014 on an annual basis. This is 20% of the total enrollment which includes all four years and graduate students as well. The non-traditional student takes approximately 6 years to complete an academic program at regional campuses. President Genshaft indicated that the state typically allows universities to upgrade the projections on a periodic basis.

USF Development Report

Dr. Al Sistrunk referred to the materials provided to the Board members and explained that the fund raising goal of $11,178 for Fiscal Year 2001-02 was in place with no development officer on the campus and came from whatever funds came in without any organization for development. In the middle of the next fiscal year he was identified as the campus development officer and at that time increased the goal to $168,000.
As of May 30, 2004 the funds raised totaled $203,145. A five year fund raising goal has been set at $10M which includes estimates value of what the Williams property might be. Preliminary fiscal year end figures for the campus indicate 86 donors which should more accurately be reflected as 232. The $203,000 goal is actually $240,202, which indicates good progress toward goals.

The five year fund raising plan of $10M has been revised by deleting the Williams goals because it is not certain when the property will be transferred to USF to a total of $3.2M. Goal for the new fiscal year, 2004-05 will be $400,000. Of that figure, $200,000 will be in endowments. Should the Williams property gift be transferred to USF in the coming fiscal year, there is an endowed professorship for USF Lakeland in the amount of $600,000 that is pledged over five years eligible for a $420,000 match from the state of Florida major gifts fund, the $200,000 figure will be revised upward. Dr. Mercer will negotiate with the Williams Company what the discipline for the endowed professorship would be.

$100,000 gifts in kind goal is a minimum floor for the coming fiscal year for the joint use building and the gifts in kind that Debbie Gula talked about. Dr. Sistrunk will strive to bring that total up using his contacts with IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems that have special programs in which they receive gift credit and purchase incentives. Regarding the USF Fund $20,000 goal, a letter over Dr. Mercer’s signature will be sent out on behalf of USF Lakeland’s unrestricted fund to all USF graduates in Polk, Highland, and Hardee Counties to promote USF Lakeland in order to increase the unrestricted availability of funds for the campus. In addition to the goal of $3.2M mentioned earlier, other possible goals will include a challenge from Dr. Mercer to Dr. Sistrunk over the next three months and find a cash gift of $1M to be used for the new primary campus infrastructure. If that can be accomplished within the next three months, the construction schedule for the new primary campus forward as much as a year. That gift could come in the form of a single gift of $1M or as two $500,000 gifts or as one $500,000 gift with application to the state of Florida Facilities Trust Fund for a one to one match. Regarding the gift of land, the attorneys and foundation will work together to bring this to fruition, after which a third party appraisal of the Williams property will take place. All of the properties in the proposed land donation should be appraised so that a blended price for the land can be completed. The possible value of the 129 acres land, estimated at $30,000 per acre, could be as high as $15.8M. Parcel 1A (174 acres) alone could carry a value of $40,000 an acre.

Dr. Mercer and Dr. Sistrunk met last week with Al Rath, for whom the Rath Senior CoNEXTions Center was named, and Terry Worthington, the President of the United Way of Central Florida. The campus was presented with a check in the amount of $28,127.24 to create a Rath Family Scholarship Endowment. This is the largest endowment to date for USF Lakeland and will be used to provide scholarships for arts & sciences students at graduate and undergraduate level who are emphasizing aging studies. It was a partnership between the United Way of Central Florida and Mr. Rath. Additions to the scholarship will be made in the future. Scholarships should begin to be awarded from this endowment beginning Fall 2004, with the selection being made by our arts & sciences faculty on the campus. Dr. Rosemarie Lamm, Director of the Rath Center, and the late Dr. Marson Johnson, Program Director for arts & sciences on this campus, were both instrumental in bringing this endowment to the campus.

This year’s University Wide Faculty and Staff Campaign generated over $800,000 in support for the university. Last year Lakeland won the President’s award for the second time with the biggest increase ($15,500) in the university. This year the goal was set at $17,500. The Lakeland faculty and staff contributed over $22,000 in this campaign. Our participation rate went from 22% last year to 70% this year, which can be considered a testimony to Kathy Prevatt, our campaign chairperson, and to Dr. Mercer who stepped in talked with faculty. Those contributors who helped to move ahead of the $17,500 goal were promised a “free lunch” and it appears that about a dozen people participated in that.

This year’s legislature mandated that a United States flag purchased with donated money will hang in every classroom in the state of Florida. A donor came forward in Lakeland and donated the first $7 toward this goal. After thanking her via mail, the donor has contacted Dr. Sistrunk and may want to donate more!
Date to remember this fall will be Monday night, November 29, 2004, 7:00 p.m. at the Lakeland Center, as the date for the first USF Lakeland Classic. The USF Athletic Department is bringing USF basketball regular season to the Lakeland Center in a game with Bethune-Cookman. There will be two receptions before the game, one for alumni and one for general public as well as VIP receptions. In addition to that, Coach McCollum indicated that sometime between now and then he would like to work out something with Polk County Schools to come in to the middle schools and do a basketball clinic. The proceeds of this event will be split between athletics and USF Lakeland to improve both programs. Coach views his role as basketball coach to extend what President Genshaft says the missions of the university are. There will be sponsorships for everything and ticket prices will be $15 for the best seats and $10 for the rest.

Budget Report and Discussion

Mr. Josh Bresler reported to the Board members the end of the year and beginning 2004-05 fiscal year budget figures. 2003-04 budget summary indicates $9.7M operating budget and its allocation throughout the fiscal year. The cost of programs and cost of support for those programs is indicated. $8.6M has been expended between personnel and non personnel categories, 83% to 17%, which is in line with the 80/20 that most of the regional campuses show. Carry forward from the 2003-04 budget will be $1.1M and brought into the existing carry forward of $2M and of this, some of which has been allocated for future program and technology equipment enhancements, anticipated carry forward after these expenditures would be $973,000.

Auxiliary accounts (lab and studio usage and bookstore receipts) were discussed. Lab/Studio Usage shows $7,850 collected, most of which is from the rental of the tower just north of the campus. A communications company has been renting space in the tower but this may not be continuing into the next fiscal year. Bookstore receipts totaled $32,000 due to student usage and growth. The ending balance for bookstore receipts with the cash carry forward from the previous fiscal year is $91,000, for a combined total of $137,000 which includes both lab/studio usage and bookstore receipts.

A detailed listing of the campus research programs and projects showed both funded projects and pending applications. As of June 25, 2004 the funded projects total $1.1M with a 4.44% overhead return. Pending grant proposals of $1.1M show a 29% overhead return.

A comparison of the 03-04 and the 04-05 funding sources was discussed. Enrollment growth in 04-05 from general revenue in the amount of $737,000 and the lottery portion is $175,000. Student fee trust fund is based on reported projections for the student body, which has a beginning budget of $2.4M, and there will be some adjustments made to that which may adjust that figure downward. Total funds in 03-04 were $9.7M and 04-05 the budget will come in at approximately $10.9M, which does include what will be held back for the Student Fee Trust Fund of approximately $300,000. President Genshaft indicated that she is hopeful that the collective bargaining discussions will be finalized and be able to administer raises to everyone. The Lakeland campus is holding back funds to meet those future commitments as they arise. Dr. Mercer indicated that the campus has prepared for this event. The salary adjustments will not come from the carry forward funds (cash account) because salary payments are not just a one-time payment but recur. Ms. Philipson had asked for clarification about where the dollars will be taken for the salary payments.

Other Business

Dr. Mercer shared with the group that one of the campus founding faculty members passed away unexpectedly, Mr. Marson Johnson, head of our criminology program. It was shocking to all of us. He is a great loss because besides being a “no boundaries” teacher, he would go any place, any time to teach classes. He was a member of numerous clubs in the community and especially in Bartow where he was a staunch member of the Rotary, Masons and others. He represented the University well. We had a memorial service for him on campus where all the faculty, staff and friends in the community came together to celebrate Dr. Johnson’s life and his contributions. Dr. Johnson will be hard to replace. When there is a loss of a member of our Lakeland family it exhibits what a real impact the university, its faculty and staff have on the community. The faculty and staff will continue his legacy and continue to be involved with the community.

Ms. Philipson asked if there was any other business to come before the Board. There being none, the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes taken and transcribed by Lorie Miros.