The Board of Trustees will vote on an expenditure request today of about $953,000 for transforming the old textbook rental facility into the new Honors College. 

The Board will meet at 1 p.m. at the University Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. 

A portion of the request goes toward extending the chilled water loop to Pemberton Hall to provide air conditioning. 

Other proposed renovations include demolishing and replacing stairwells in the old textbook rental, which connects to Pemberton hall, and removing and installing the flooring to accommodate the stairwells. 

Masonry foundation walls will be constructed to form rooms in the lower level of the old textbook rental, and walls will be built in the stairwell crawl spaces. 

Sprinkler-system revisions are also included in the expenditure request along with updating the electrical wiring in the building. 

According to the expenditure request, the total project cost is about $3.5 million when factoring in about $2 million of work from the university’s Renovations and Alterations Department and $539,000 of work from the Illinois Capital Development Board. 

The Board of Trustees will also vote on the $1.7 million expenditure request to the Illinois Department of Central Management Services to offset a shortfall in the state group insurance program.

The shortfall of $45 million occurred in 2001, and each university in Illinois makes a payment.

President Bill Perry said the universities take the funds out of general revenue appropriations.

“There are different levels for the different universities and essentially should be proportional to the size of the work force at each university,” Perry said.

The University of Illinois is charged with the largest cost of about $25 million, and Governors State University has the smallest contribution of about $656,000. 

The trustees will also vote on the personnel contract for Jay Spoonhour, the new men’s basketball head coach, and a contract extension to Brady Sallee, the women’s basketball head coach.

The Board is also scheduled to vote on 20 tenure recommendations including 19 assistant professors and Harold Ornes, who will become the new dean of the College of Sciences. 

Faculty members are usually applicable for tenure after six years of teaching. 

Evaluations are reviewed by a department’s personnel committee, the department chair and dean, the university personnel committee and the provost. Then the Board of Trustees makes the final approval. 

“(Tenure) is a very important decision in the life of a university,” Perry said. “Tenured status is very important in terms of academic freedom for faculty to do their research and scholarly work.” 

William Weber, the vice president for business affairs, will present a report on the Financial Sustainability section of the Strategic Plan, and Daniel Nadler, the vice president for student affairs, will speak about student community service. The 10th annual Panther Service Day will be April 20-21. 

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or  [email protected].