The University’s Board of Regents is gearing up for its annual meeting at the University’s campus in Flint this Thursday.
Though the Board of Regents usually holds monthly meetings in the Michigan Union, each year they visit the Flint and Dearborn campuses for reports on each campus, as well as scheduled agenda topics. This week, the regents will hear from Flint campus representatives, as well as its student government president.
Other agenda items include approving University President Mark Schlissel’s recommendation for honorary degree recipients at the 2015 Winter Commencement ceremony and authorization to issue bids and award contracts for a new golf course clubhouse — a point of contention at a previous regents meeting.
The regents will be asked to authorize bids and construction contracts for a new clubhouse at the University’s golf course. The estimated cost of the project is $15 million, funded by the Athletic Department and gifts.
At the May board meeting, the regents disagreed on schematic design of the clubhouse — resulting in a discussion lasting 30 minutes. Regent Andrew Richner (R–Grosse Pointe Park) and Regent Mark Bernstein (D–Ann Arbor) in particular disapproved of the design for reasons surrounding the “culture” of the clubhouse.
“I don’t want my personal feelings to get in the way of this, but I just don’t like it,” Richner said at the May meeting.
During the meeting, Schlissel was visibly irritated by the regents’ inability to decide and resulted in a motion to table discussion and voting to the July meeting.
Their discussion marked the first time the regents openly debated an agenda item at any of this year’s board meetings.
The University’s Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs will also provide a report detailing their support for incentiving more Friday classes. The resolution, which will be up for a vote before the full Senate Assembly later this month, reads in part:
“The Senate Assembly therefore strongly urges the Provost to promote and incentivize the regular teaching of large enrollment 100 and 200 level courses (defined as courses having ten or more sections) with a Friday meeting. It recommends that in cases where such classes have a lecture component, those classes will regularly have a lecture on Friday.”