The Board of Trustees has decided to freeze tuition for full-time traditional undergraduate students for the third consecutive year.
The vote to freeze tuition followed a nearly hour-long executive session closed to the public at the Board’s Oct. 24 meeting.
Bob Gatti, vice president for student affairs, said at an address to student government Thursday that this would be the first time in his 37 years at Otterbein that the university had not increased tuition for three consecutive years.
“The university really feels strongly that we can’t continue to increase tuition, even though the average net cost to students has not increased over the years. You know, as tuition went up, our financial aid and discount went up, so the amount of tuition increase has not really changed significantly, but it’s just a sticker price so it makes sense for us to do that,” Gatti said.
President Kathy Krendl said “one of our major initiatives is to remain affordable and accessible and that helps students get to success so the more affordable we can make education at Otterbein, the more likely students are to become successful in terms of reaching graduation so it’s really about the students.”
Krendl declined to elaborate on what was discussed in the closed executive session, after which another vote regarding the institutional plan was held.
The Board passed a measure to convert the building on 60 Collegeview into a STEAM (science, engineering, technology, art and math) center in a multi-faceted construction plan.
Jackie Haverkamp, chair for the facilities committee and associate professor of nursing, said the building “seems to be a very natural fit for some of the things we hope to come out of engineering and out of the adaptive reuse of what is a truly ugly building.”
Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings, vice president of business affairs, said the first phase of the plan, to make the building the home of the systems engineering major, was scheduled to be finished in time for fall semester 2016.
Michael McGreevey, recently appointed the new vice president for institutional advancement, announced that the “Where we Stand Matters” capital campaign was near $23 million, at 46 percent of its $50 million goal.
Cabot Rea, a 1978 Otterbein graduate and television reporter for WCMH, was voted into the board at the meeting. Rea announced this month that he would retire from the television station in December.
“I cut my lip in the shower, I was bleeding Cardinal and Tan,” Rea said, excusing his late arrival to the meeting. “[This is] an awesome opportunity, I’m looking forward to it. I’m getting ready to change my life and I’m gonna have a little bit more time so I’m looking forward to getting more involved with the school.”
