College costs, Internet speeds and new buildings are going up while parking costs are going down, according to President Stephen Minnis in his address in O'Malley-McAllister Auditorium on March 11.
In the next school year, tuition at Benedictine is expected to increase by five percent, while room and board will increase by six percent. Other private colleges in the area are planning on increasing their tuition as well.
“Our tuition increase actually will be lower than most if not all of the private schools in this region,” President Minnis said.
By summer, the college plans to increase Internet speeds by increasing the downloading capability from 30 Megabits per second to 75 megabits per second.
Minnis also announced that the college is taking out a bond.
“We took out an $11 million bond issue, which will go to refinance a previous bond issue, saving the college money,” said Minnis. “We basically took out loans in 2003 at a certain interest rate. Now the interest rates are lower, so we are refinancing that 2003 bond issue as part of the $11 million bond issue.”
As of next year, campus parking will be free. On-campus students will be able to park in any student parking lots for no charge, while off-campus students will be able to find free parking on the newly-acquired hospital property. Parking stickers will still be required on vehicles, but there will be no charge.
However, while parking increases on campus, parking on the city streets beside the college will be limited.
“It is my understanding that the city, by next fall, will be prohibiting parking by Second Street and Mound Street,” Minnis said.
Minnis also spoke of the Second Street projects, which include tearing down the hospital, buying the new row houses and renovating newly-acquired hospital property. The Ramsay building will be renovated for the nursing department, and Cray Manor will house sophomore men and the psychology, sociology and mass communications departments.
In addition to all of the other changes, security presence on campus should increase slightly, and sidewalks will be put in along Second Street, according to Minnis.
Finally, Minnis announced that the Board of Directors voted to continue with a $17.9 million building project. The new four-story academic center will eventually house the business, education, and theology and philosophy departments, and the top floor will contain a conference center and executive offices. The building will be located on the river side of the space between St. Benedict's Hall and Westerman Hall.
“We have raised $11 million towards the building of this building,” President Minnis said. “And what we have raised is about what it takes to build the shell of the building.”
According to Minnis, if the money can be raised by next March, the construction crew should be able to finish the building by homecoming in 2011.
“We want to take advantage of really historically low construction rates, which are at all-time lows, and probably will be the lowest in years,” Minnis said.
He also spoke of BC's biggest fundraising project to date.
“We're in the middle of the Investing in Excellence campaign. It is a 50 million-dollar campaign, which is four times larger than any campaign the college has previously had....we are at about 46.6 million today, so we will most likely exceed our campaign goal, but we're not there yet. Right now our biggest goal is to raise the last 6.9 million to complete the academic center.”
