The Board of Trustees of the Eastern Michigan University Foundation met Friday morning at the Eagle Crest Golf Club House as various committees and members of the Eastern Michigan University community gave updates on the state of the foundation, the university and goals for the future.
According to reports presented at the meeting, the foundation has raised over $9 million in the 2012 fiscal year. The goal of the foundation is to increase that number to $15 million in the next five years.
Another part of the five-year plan is to increase the membership of the board, adding seven to eight new members in the next five meetings and two members each year after. The board has three meetings per year.
Among the issues discussed was the current bill in the Michigan Senate to allow community colleges to grant four-year degrees. Leigh Greden, head of government relations for the university, and EMU President Susan Martin, spoke out against the bill.
“It makes no business sense. How will they pay for it?” Greden said.
He encouraged members of the board to contact their state senators and urge them to defeat the bill. All 15 of Michigan’s public universities have opposed the bill.
Martin also updated the foundation board on efforts to balance the university’s budget, including the elimination of the special assistant to the president position and the closing of the Flint campus.
“We’re trying to become more business-like in how we use our resources,” she said.
She also informed the board of progress in the strategic planning process and the reorganization of the university administration as Provost Kim Schatzel settles into her position. Martin said Schatzel now oversees, “everything from getting [students] in to getting them out.”
Another issue presented at the meeting was the adoption of a Code of Ethics for the foundation.
“We’re making a promise to the university that we will abide by a code of ethics,” said Bill Brickley of the Trusteeship Committee, who presented the code to the board.
The Code of Ethics, to be signed by all members of the board at the beginning of every year, contains a commitment to make the welfare of EMU the first priority of the foundation, a pledge of time and effort by all members and a promise to give due diligence to all plans and proposals put before the board.
Individual members of the board have no legal authority to act autonomously, only as part of collective action by the board. A motion to pass the Code of Ethics was presented to the board of trustees and passed unanimously.
