Tuesday, November 13, 2001

Trustees approve renovation plans
By John-Mark Day
Staff Reporter

The Board of Trustees approved a $20 million plan to renovate teaching labs and lecture halls at their fall meeting Friday, Chancellor Michael Ferrari said.

The board met last Thursday and Friday for the first time this school year. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Don Mills said the main focus of the meeting was subcommittee reports.

“The fall meeting is pretty typically just reports,” Mills said.

The trustees did vote to move ahead on the renovation, which will begin immediately, but the plan will likely stretch over the next two summers, Ferrari said. He said the renovation will be planned around classes.

“We’re going into labs that were built 40 years ago,” Ferrari said.

The renovations are Phase II of the renovation plan that included last summer’s renovation of campus classrooms.

The labs, located in Winton-Scott Hall and the Sid W. Richardson Building will be refurbished with new lighting, ceilings, lab tables, chairs and other equipment, said Tracy Syler-Doctson, interim director of communication.

Ferrari said the possibility of an additional women’s sport was discussed by the Athletics committee, and will be proposed in the spring meeting. Ferrari said no sport had been settled on, but softball is a possibility.

Trustee and Athletics committee member Clarence Scharbauer III said another women’s sport would be added to be make the university more compliant with Title IX regulations.

“We’re right there on the danger area for Title IX,” Scharbauer said.

Title IX is a federal law that requires equal opportunities for men and women to participate in sports. The ratio of male to female athletes should be proportional to the ratio of male to female undergraduate students, according to the NCAA’s Web site.

Mills said Title IX is a constant consideration for the university.

“As long as you’ve got 105 people on a football team (it creates conflict with Title IX),” Mills said.

The Athletics committee also discussed the search for a new men’s basketball coach, Scharbauer said. That search will likely last into the spring, he said.

The trustees also discussed the possibility of a parking structure, but postponed further discussion to hear more about including a parking structure in the Berry Street Initiative, Ferrari said. They will revisit the issue in January, he said.

The Berry Street Initiative is a plan to make Berry Street a boulevard with wider sidewalks, two traffic lanes and new stores, Ferrari said. He said a new parking structure may fit in with the initiative.

Trustee John Long said the meeting was very positive, especially after a tough semester.

The board will meet twice more this year: in January to discuss the budget and once more in the spring to approve the budget and finalize issues for this year, Ferrari said.

John-Mark Day
j.m.day2@student.tcu.edu