By Lori Bredemeyer, Copy Editor
The Board of Trustees will meet this weekend to discuss next year’s budget and the Centennial Campaign.
Don Crisp, chairman of the Board, said one major topic of discussion and approval will be the budget for the 2004-05 school year. He said the finance committee will make recommendations regarding the budget to the board during its Saturday meeting.
“We have been aware of the necessity of spending cuts for several months,” Crisp said. “We have great confidence in the administration and their ability to make difficult decisions. I do not anticipate any major changes to the budget.”
Crisp said the university’s endowment is “in the top 10 percent of all colleges in the nation.”
“The university is in the strongest financial position in its history,” he said. “We sincerely regret the need to make difficult spending cuts in the budget, but that action should not create any concerns about the future of ACU.”
Gaston Welborn, vice president and general counsel, said the Board consists of 60 members and nine standing committees.
The standing committees represent the major divisions of the university, such as academics, Campus Life and development, and will meet Friday to “discuss their own agendas and make reports to the Board,” he said.
The Board has two regularly scheduled meetings, one in February and one in August, and Crisp said these meetings affect everyone on campus.
“The board has the ultimate responsibility for governance of the university,” Crisp said. “We set broad policies which provide guidelines for the administration. It is then our role to monitor the activities of the university for compliance with the established policies.”
Another major topic of discussion is the Centennial Campaign.
“We will discuss details of the Centennial Campaign, which will be announced at the President’s Circle meeting on Saturday night,” Crisp said. “This campaign is extremely important to the university, and we are excited about the results so far.”
Although most details of proceedings of the meetings are confidential until the board has met, Welborn said he knows the members will make the right decisions for the university.
“I think this is a great university,” he said. “It’s a great board, and they’re going to do what they always do, which is to meet, deliberate, consider very prayerfully, very seriously the great challenges and the great opportunities that we face as a university. With God’s blessing they’ll do a great job.”
