BOWLING GREEN — Incoming Bowling Green State University freshmen will pay 3 percent more in tuition and fees than current students.
The BGSU trustees at Friday’s meeting approved the increase, along with a $9.6 million renovation to Kohl Hall and $3.7 million for Jerome Library improvements. A collective bargaining agreement with faculty was also approved.
Incoming freshmen are in the seventh cohort of the Falcon Tuition Guarantee, which locks in rates for four years — what they pay in their first year is the same they will pay in their fourth year. The guarantee was established in December, 2017.
Friday’s action by the board sets the rates for incoming first-year students only. Returning students are not impacted because their rate was locked in when they started classes at BGSU.
The 3 percent increase for this cohort is in comparison to the cohort from last year. When spaced out over the course of their four years, it equates to an increase of 0.75 percent per year.
Drew Forhan, board president, said when the student experience, room and board rates, and tuition fees are all factored in, BGSU remains a bargain among state universities.
“I think we’re very competitive for the experience that we give the student,” Mr. Forhan said.
The university’s Life Design program, which offers career readiness assistance to all undergraduate students, makes BGSU stand out, he said.
“We’ve taken it on as a full experience for the students,” he said. “It’s starting to prove that it’s helping the students in connecting with them, and making sure their experience over four years is good, and it sets them on a good path for life.
“It was a bold move and took a huge commitment,” Mr. Forhan added.
In February, the board raised room rates 3 percent and meal rates 3.5 percent for the 2024-25 academic year.
Also Friday, the trustees approved a three-year contract with the BGSU Faculty Association that provides raises of up to 3 percent for the 742 faculty members.
“Working on contract is a time-consuming process,” said President Rodney Rogers. “I believe it is a fair contract, an appropriate contract.”
The faculty association on Wednesday ratified the agreement, which is from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2027.
“It's a very fair contract,” said David Jackson, president of the faculty association. “We are particularly happy about the progressive nature of the raises. The lowest paid faculty will get the highest percentage raises because inflation hits them the hardest.”
The agreement has performance-based salary increases (combination of baseline/meets performance expectations and merit):
■ Fiscal year 2025: 3 percent (2 percent baseline or $2,000, whichever is higher; 1 percent merit).
■ FY 2026: 2.5 percent (1.5 percent baseline or $1,500, whichever is higher; 1 percent merit).
■ FY 2027: 2.5 percent (1.5 percent baseline or $1,000, whichever is higher; 1 percent merit).
The university/employee percentage contributions to health care premiums remain unchanged. There will be an increase in deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket costs.
The board is expected to consider raises for classified and administrative staff in June.
The Kohl Hall and library projects were also approved.
Officials had planned on doing a $6.3 million air conditioning project at Kohl and McDonald halls, said Sherideen Stoll, chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration.
“We found some things that we weren’t quite expecting that were worse than we had hoped — primarily plumbing related, but there were other issues,” she said about Kohl Hall during the board’s facilities and finance committee meeting Friday morning. “We thought maybe now is the time to bite the bullet.”
The additional work will improve aesthetics and add pod bathrooms and 40 residence rooms to the 180 existing. It’s expected this renovation will extend the life of the 68,000-square-foot residence hall, which was built in 1962, by up to 30 years.
Jerome Library will be getting a facelift — but not to the most well-known part of its exterior.
Trustee Forhan asked if the outside artwork on the building, which was done by Donald Drumm, needs to be restored.
“It does, and it’s not included in this building envelope work, initially,” said April Smucker, associate vice president for capital planning and campus operations. “It would be nice to find a way to do that in concert, but we have not been able to do that.”
The cost for the art restoration would be $800,000 to $1 million, she said.
Ms. Stoll said the “iconic landmark” was built in 1965 and will celebrate its 60th anniversary next summer.
The building is at risk for water infiltration, she said.
There will be brick tuckpointing, window and skylight replacement, and caulking done at the library, which houses over 7 million items.
“Basically, anything and everything that has to do with water ... we will be performing work around,” Ms. Stoll said.
While preparing the design work, the team determined the tower’s 34-year-old roof must be replaced, she said.
Both the Kohl and Jerome projects are expected to be completed by summer, 2025.
Part of the new 15-year master plan, which was also approved Friday, is to use Jerome Library as a campus anchor, relocating office spaces to the seventh and eighth floors and renovating the second floor for student-focused activity.
The plan also includes renovating the Fine Arts Center, Eppler Complex, Education Building, Kreischer Quadrangle, Founders Residence Hall, and Overman, Hayes, Central, and East halls.
Ms. Stoll said they still have to figure out funding, and this is just a start.
“What you are approving here is not the end of anything. It’s the beginning of everything,” Ms. Stoll said.
The trustees approved the creation of a Doctor of Occupational Therapy program.
Set to launch in August, 2025, the program will mirror the university's two-year, hybrid Doctor of Physical Therapy program, where students from anywhere in the country learn in an accelerated, online format and come to campus twice per semester for hands-on experiential learning and collaborative clinical sessions.
The program will have 13 full-time faculty members to support 160 students per year.
The board honored 49 faculty members with promotion and tenure status.
The trustees voted to promote or appoint 15 faculty members to full professor, 14 to associate professor, eight to teaching professor, and 11 to associate teaching professor. One faculty member was granted tenure in addition to those who were promoted or appointed to professor and associate professor, respectively.
Additionally, the board granted emeritus status to 13 faculty members.
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