March 19, 2015

SIU Board approves projects, elects officers

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees today (March 19) approved a number of improvement projects and held its annual election of officers.

Meeting in regular session in Carbondale, the board:

  • Agreed to reimburse 3,500 eligible current and former SIU Carbondale employees for unpaid closure or furlough days, including interest, taken during Fiscal Year 2011. Employees and many of the university’s collective bargaining groups took four unpaid days to assist the university in managing a budgetary shortfall. Total cost will be $4.1 million; details about the reimbursements, which will be included in employee paychecks by the end of the spring semester, will be shared shortly.
  • Approved the sale of revenue bonds to pay for three capital improvement projects: $3.3 million for a parking lot improvement project at SIU Edwardsville; $1.5 million of the total $2.6 million cost for the Student Fitness Center weight room expansion and the Vadalabene Center entrance renovation project; and $3.7 million of the total $4.3 million cost of renovations to SIU Carbondale’s Richard “Itchy” Jones Stadium, which covers an internal loan for the project.
  • Approved the $1 million second phase of renovations to McLafferty Annex on the Carbondale campus. The 65,000-square-foot facility, originally built in 2005 as storage space during the renovation and expansion of Morris Library, is being converted to research space.
  • Awarded the $475,000 contract for renovations to the School of Dental Medicine’s student lab to R & W Builders Inc. of Belleville.
  • Awarded $1.6 million in construction contracts to expand the Student Fitness Center weight room and renovate the Vadalabene Center entrance on the Edwardsville campus.
  • Agreed to recognize the SIUE Charter School, which serves ninth-12th grade students in East St. Louis, as a University Related Organization. The designation is one of the steps needed to meet Illinois State Board of Education regulations, which require the Charter School to incorporate itself as an independent non-profit organization, rather than being under the umbrella of the university.
  • Re-elected Gen. Randal Thomas as board chair and Trustee Donna Manering as vice chair. Trustee Joel Sambursky was elected secretary.
  • Named Lucas Crater as general counsel. He has been serving as interim general counsel since 2013.