The Board of Trustees, IU’s governing body, met Thursday and Friday at IU-Purdue University ?Indianapolis.
The University Relations Committee and the Academic Affairs and University Policies Committee convened Thursday, while the Finance, Audit and Strategic Planning Committee and the Facilities and Auxiliaries Committee convened Friday.
On Friday, during the Facilities and Auxiliaries Committee meeting, the trustees approved the second phase of renovations to Read Hall and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Read Hall will receive new accessible student rooms, said Tom Morrison, IU vice president of capital ?planning and facilities.
Both new and existing rooms will receive new closet and storage layouts and new fire protection systems, as well as air conditioning systems.
“Which I’m sure students will be excited about,” Morrison said.
In addition, restrooms will be updated, elevators replaced and a new roof and new exterior windows will be installed, Morrison said.
Morrison said the renovations are expected to begin this upcoming summer, lasting approximately two years, and are estimated to cost $20 million.
The School of Public and Environmental Affairs will receive a 30,000 square foot addition to the southern edge, Morrison said, putting the southern edge of the SPEA roughly even with the southern edge of the new Hodge Hall.
The addition will house new graduate classrooms, Morrison said.
Morrison said the renovations are also expected to begin this upcoming summer, lasting 12 to 14 months, and are estimated to cost $12 million.
The trustees also approved the sale of Chi Phi’s real estate, as Chi Phi has agreed to sell their real estate, 1400 North Jordan Avenue, to Phi Sigma Kappa.
On Thursday, during the University Relations Committee meeting, the trustees approved the IU Non-Discrimination/Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy.
“The trustees strongly reaffirmed their commitment to prohibit all forms of discrimination,” said Jacqueline Simmons, IU vice president and general counsel.
The policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status, Simmons said.
The policy applies to the hiring and promotion of all IU employees, including administrators, faculty, staff and temporary employees, and the recruitment and admittance of all IU students, Simmons said.
Though the policy has been in effect since 1969, the trustees approved an updated version of the policy, which includes a reference to Title IX.
“Title IX prohibits sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender or sex in any educational institution that receives government funding,” Simmons said. “Title IX is such a big issue right now.”
During the Academic Affairs and University Policies Committee meeting, the trustees approved the new University-Related Legal Entities Policy.
The policy lays out a framework for establishing and monitoring University-related legal entities, entities not legally considered to be affiliated with the University but commonly viewed to be affiliated with the University, Sim mons said.
“We have a number of entities around the university that people think of as being Indiana University,” Simmons said. “And so, because of their name or because of their relationship to the University, they may have been started by a professor or an employee or a student at Indiana University, people think of them as being Indiana University.”
Simmons said that, as the number of requests for University-related legal entities has grown throughout the past year, the University’s concern about liability for these University-related legal entities has also grown.
“So what we decided to do was make it more clear when we would allow such entities to be established and what the criteria would be and who would actually make decisions so that we can be consistent across the board,” Simmons said.
The policy defines a university-related legal entity as any organization with a legal existence separate from the University that is, nevertheless, likely to be viewed as part of the University or likely to viewed as affiliated with the University, Simmons said.
Those organizations that meet this definition must receive sponsorship from a University unit and a letter of support from the head of that unit before sending a detailed proposal to be approved by the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel, the Office of the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the Office of the President and the Board of Trustees, Simmons said.
“We needed to make sure that (the organizations) were all going through the same decision-making process to decide whether they were legitimate or not,” Simmons said.
The trustees also approved a new degree for IU-South Bend: a master of science in education in educational leadership.
During the Finance, Audit and Strategic Planning Committee meeting, the trustees approved two resolutions.
The resolutions delegated authority from the Board of Trustees to the Finance, Audit and Strategic Planning Committee to approve the issuance of tax exempt or taxable debt, including the issuance of tax exempt or taxable bonds.
The debt will be used to pay for renovations to Franklin Hall and Assembly Hall at IU-Bloomington, the Arts and Sciences Building at IU-Northwest and student housing at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, said Donald Lukes, assistant treasurer to the Board of Trustees.
