On Tuesday, a town hall meeting was held in the Hawkins Conard Student Center Auditorium to update faculty, staff and students on the Board of Trustees meetings, as well as the current status of the prioritization process. 

At this meeting, Stephen Storck, AU’s vice president for business operations, announced the university would be issuing $40 million in tax-exempt bonds to reduce debt and fund renovations to the campus infrastructure and buildings, particularly residence halls. $26 million would go towards paying off bank debt, while $5 would go towards the residence halls and other renovations.

Also within his report, Storck announced the university’s partially self-insured health fund had claims in excess of the premiums paid in, a situation the university will likely remedy by paying out the difference.  

Crothers also added the University’s budget next year will be more conservative than this year’s, which was more conservative than the 2013-14 budget. This, he says, will allow the university to operate within a stable, predictable financial environment.

The other major news to come from the town hall meeting was the discussion surrounding the university’s plans to more seriously enter the world of adult and online education. 

In October, the Board of Trustees asked President William Crothers to furnish a report developing a plan to enter the online market, and that committee presented its findings to the Board of Trustees during their meeting at the end of January. However, the board was not asked to decide on any plan.

“We really didn’t really have a plan,” Crothers said. “What we gave them was an incomplete statement.”

The prioritization process was another major portion of the meeting. The first review of the undergraduate programs has been completed, and the comments from department chairs and deans have been sent back up the chain. All of that feedback will be taken into account before the report is made public to the entire Ashland community.

On the nonacademic side, the prioritization process is also underway, with results expected to become public in three to four weeks. 

The goal with this report, along with all the findings that will come out of the prioritization process, is to be concise and complete. In other words, the reports are to be as simple as possible while containing all the information nexessary for a Board member to make an informed decision.

Crothers also said no faculty will be cut during this academic year, but that the prioritization process could cause some changes. For example, a program that is being enhanced may gain a professor at the expense of a program that has been reduced.