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23 January 2006

President's Quarterly Report to Board of Trustees

President’s Report

President’s Report

Board of Trustees Meeting

January 23, 2006

Capital Projects

Ayers Hall Transportation Building

Hale Building Company was awarded the contract to complete the interior portion of this structure for the Department of Technology and Engineering. A pre-construction conference is planned for the end of January that will initiate work on this project that will be completed in six months.

McClellan Building 3181 Forensic Lab

Eugene Turner Contractor was awarded the contract on November 15, 2005 to reconfigure classroom space for the Alabama State Forensics Lab. The Lab will be moving to McClellan from its campus location in Brewer Hall. A pre-construction conference was held January 12 to initiate this work which will be completed in the next six months.  

Demolition of Steam Plant, Abercrombie and Luttrell Halls

Taylor Corporation of Oxford, Alabama, our demolition contractor has completed the demolition of the Central Steam Plant, Abercrombie Hall and Luttrell Hall.  The last phase of the project site restoration will be complete in early February.

Roof Replacement 2002

The University has pursued legal action against Standard Roofing to seek a remedy for leaks in Stephenson Hall and other locations. A waterproofing consultant inspected Stephenson and other facilities and will be making recommendations to correct and remediate the leak problems.

Little River Canyon Field School

Our architect continues to develop and improve the design of the environmental friendly building using “LEED Certification” (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) technology and materials.

Chimney Peak Observatory

The project design was reviewed and reworked to simplify construction and incorporate desires of those using the facility. The project will be ready for bid in March and construction is expected in four to six months. 

Art Department Annex Building

With your approval today we will now move to bid this project in March. Construction is expected to take nine to twelve months. This will greatly improve the safety of our Art faculty and students working with ceramics, as well as complete our commitment to the National Schools of Art and Design for reaccreditation.

University Activities

Spring ’06 Enrollment

Enrollment for Spring ’06 increased slightly over ’05. Both head count and credit hour production were up over the prior year. The College of Education and Professional Studies and the College of Nursing increased in enrollment. A chart of credit hours produced and head count is in your binder under
Tab 6.

Housing Report

The residence hall report indicates an average 93% occupancy rate with only Sparkman Hall at 85%. All other halls are occupied at 94% or greater for the spring semester. Our oldest Hall, Daugette was 99% occupied. University owned apartments have an occupancy rate of 99% and all University houses are 100% occupied.

Governmental Affairs

This year the Council of Presidents and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education recommended a budget that would increase Jacksonville State University’s funding from last year by 12.02% or $4,184,080 to a total of $38,997,403. The budget was built using the 05-06 appropriation as a base to which mandated increases in teacher retirement, retiree’s health insurance, and other mandated costs were added. $150,000,000 in new funding was added to the budget with $4,000,000 for equity into two categories: doctoral and non-doctoral institutions.

Governor Riley’s Education budget included the ACHE budget request and an additional funding of one time money from the Education Trust Fund surplus for Higher Education. Jacksonville State University’s share of these funds would be $5,399,737 dollars.

The formula for dividing these funds is based on a split between K-12 schools, Higher Education, two-year and four-year similar to prior bond issues and allocated to higher education institutions on the basis of the number of full time equivalent students at each institution. Overall it is a fair way to allocate these one time funds and JSU is grateful to the Governor for his support of Higher Education.

Academic Affairs  

I am pleased to present Dr. Rebecca Turner, Vice president for Academic and Student Affairs. Dr. Turner’s report is in your binder under Tab 6 which you may read at your leisure.

JSU’s College of Commerce and Business Administration was selected to The Princeton Review’s Best 237 Business Schools, 2006 edition. JSU’s achievement Jacksonville State University’s College of Commerce and Business of being named into the "Best 237" shouldn’t be overlooked. After all, there are 7,000 business schools worldwide, including 2,000 in the United States that were eligible for the honor. That would calculate to JSU being ranked in the top 10 percent of business schools in the world – quite an accomplishment.

Dr. Turner has some guest to introduce: first, an update on the Alabama Department of Education award to Jacksonville State University to fund the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative for the 15 school systems in JSU’s service area.

AMSTI provides three basic services to math and science teachers: professional development, equipment and materials, and on-site support to teachers from university faculty and AMSTI-trained professional educators. We are very glad to have Dr. Joe Morton, State Superintendent of Schools who led this initiative with us today. Also we need to acknowledge our Trustee, Congressman Bud Cramer, who secured federal funds for this effort which began in his district. The results of AMSTI have been dramatic, indicating improved scores in math and science for the school that have participated.

Dr. Turner’s second guest Dr. Frank King, Associate Vice President for Distance Education has an update on two distance learning projects: the Calhoun County Fiber Project and the State Department of Education distance learning project ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide).

Athletics

Mr. Jim Fuller athletic director will provide any news from our athletic teams.

Institutional Advancement   

Mr. Joe Serviss, vice president for institutional advancement will provide a brief update of our capital campaign. I also want to thank Mr. Serviss and his staff for the excellent 2004-2005 Annual Report.

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment

In your material you will find a copy of the Jacksonville State University 2005-2006 Fact Book. Dr. Alica Simmons has done an excellent job on this edition which is valuable to our faculty and staff pursuing contracts and grants and to the general public seeking to know more about JSU. The hardcopy edition contains a CD of our fact book which is also available on line at the JSU website.



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