The Board of Trustees mets on January 30 at Wilbur Cross North Reading room to discuss the future plans for the budget. (Charlotte Lao/The Daily Campus)
While the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees has not yet announced who the new UConn president will be, the board voted unanimously Wednesday to raise tuition and fees for the UConn School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine for the next three years, as well as to renovate Whitney Dining Hall. The board also approved the addition of the geoscience major to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The board entered an executive session after the meeting to discuss the presidential candidate, who sources said would be University of Virginia provost Thomas C. Katsouleas
Katsouleas previously served as the dean for the Pratt School of Engineering and a professor of electrical engineering at Duke University. He also taught physics and engineering at the University of Southern California and UCLA, according to his University of Virginia faculty page. He has served as the provost for the university since 2015.
The board members will convene next Tuesday to vote on the new president with Gov. Ned Lamont present, though no other details were revealed at the time of the meeting.
“We as a university haven’t discussed anything [to the public] about individuals, out of respect for the process,” UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said after the meeting.
Tuition increases for the UConn School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine were presented by UConn Health Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey P. Geoghegan, who said despite a 4.8 percent increase in tuition for the School of Medicine and a 3.5 percent increase for Dental Medicine, UConn Health’s cost to students are still well below the national thresholds for medical school debt.
The board also voted to approve geoscience as a major, which was presented and voted on in the academic affairs committee. The new major will be housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
As well, the board voted to approve renovations to Whitney Dining Hall, which UConn Chief Financial Officer Scott Jordan said is due for an overhaul.
“It’s important to the university [to improve the dining halls] from a strategic standpoint,” Jordan said to the board. “It’s a business. We want to make students want to live here.”
The renovations to Whitney will cost the university $4.2 million according to the agenda.
Marlese Lessing is the news editor for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at marlese.lessing@uconn.edu. She tweets @marlese_lessing.
