Board of trustees has first meeting of the year

NEW ALBANY — IU's board of trustees met Friday for the first time this semester at the IU Southeast campus in New Albany. The trustees were given updates on various programs on the Bloomington campus and voted on issues including a new women's field hockey field and a memorial for late University Chancellor Herman B Wells.\nTrustees approved the further development of a women's field hockey facility. The site will be located north of the Mellencamp indoor practice facility, will have an artificial surface and will be built to NCAA standards. Estimated cost for the facility is one million dollars, and it will be funded by student fees.\nAlso approved was the naming of a memorial to Wells. The memorial, which will include a life-size statue and brick plaza, will be named the Herman B Wells Plaza and is set to be dedicated Homecoming Weekend.\nThe Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research, a multi-campus effort to conduct quality mental health research, was approved unanimously by the University Policies Committee. The system-wide University Policy on Conflicts of Interest was also passed 3-0 by the trustees on the committee.\n"The purpose is to enable faculty from different schools to get together with mutual intellectual interests to share their expertise," Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis said at the meeting.\nJames Sherman, professor of psychology and co-secretary of the University Faculty Council, presented the 12 main issues the faculty council intends to address this year. Those points include inter-campus transferring of credits and the roles of non-tenured track faculty.\nRobert Meadows, University architect, presented a plan to restore Wylie House, the residence of the first president of IU. The house, which dates back to 1835 and is located at 307 E Second St., has been used as a museum in the past. Meadows detailed various ways of using the building for this purpose.\n"The house was restored about 15 years ago and certain liberties were taken in the restoration," he said. Meadows added that he would like to obtain funding to restore the house to a more historically accurate condition.\nAt the meeting, those present also discussed using the house for residents. President Myles Brand suggested restoring the house and using it as a residence for visiting dignitaries or other special guests.\nBruce Jacobs, associate vice chancellor for administrative affairs, gave an update on students living in the residence halls. Jacobs said the halls have increased retention rates from 23 percent before the re-opening of Willkie Quad to 30 percent this year.\n"In the past students have canceled contracts over the summer," he said. "In the last two years we've added contracts."\nVarious plans are being discussed to accommodate for larger numbers of students choosing to live on campus in the future. One of these options is moving undergraduates into the University-owned apartments, such as the University East and West apartments, which have traditionally been occupied by graduate or married students. Jacobs saidthat if this plan is adopted, the apartments would most likely be given to older students. \nJacobs added when given the choice, living in the residence halls is freshmen students' first choice for housing and that students having to live in lounges for their first few weeks are willing to wait for rooms to open up for them.\nAn update was also presented on the issue of the Bloomington campus bus system. This year, full-time students paid a $21.20 mandatory fee, which allows access to all Bloomington Transit routes. Lynn Coyne, assistant vice president for real estate and economic development, reported on the preliminary effects of the plan. In the first weeks of the semester, there was a 30 percent increase of riders of Bloomington Transit, not counting the C route. The C route, which was changed from a campus bus to a Bloomington Transit route this year, has had a 74 percent increase in ridership since the plan went into effect.\n"Bloomington Transit has also adjusted the C route," Coyne said. "More buses now run during the afternoon hours"