The December meetings of the Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon began Wednesday, with members voicing enthusiasm for the Oregon Commitment, which President Michael Schill announced during a campus address Nov. 11.

Schill shared details of the access, affordability and student success initiative during the Academic and Student Affairs Committee  meeting, outlining what board members can expect to see in the coming year. Members of the committee voiced a belief in the importance of the initiatives, emphasizing the need to re-evaluate a decentralized approach.

The committee also received an overview of the Department of International Affairs from Dennis Galvan, vice provost for International Affairs, and of the programmatic components of the new college and careers building from Andrew Marcus, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Executive and Audit Committee received the first quarter audit report as well as a report from an external auditor on the IT risk assessment. 

The Finance and Facilities Committee heard plans to bring three of the university’s largest housing complexes — Bean, Hamilton and Walton — up to modern standards through renovation rather than replacement.

According to a report presented to the committee by student life leadership, tearing down the older buildings and constructing new ones would be more expensive and would increase room and board rates significantly; renovation is approximately 40 percent of the cost of building new.

The committee voted to approve the Bean Hall renovation project as a seconded motion, which will go before the full board for approval during the full board meeting.

In addition, the the committee approved a request to name the new college and careers building Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall, after the couple who made a lead gift of $10 million for the project, and to name the new softball stadium now under construction Jane Sanders Stadium, in recognition of a $16 million gift from Bob Sanders, a longtime donor, in honor of his late wife. Both of these seconded motions will also go before the full board for consideration.

 Committee members also heard a quarterly financial and treasury report and went through the fiscal year 2015 audited financial statements with external auditor firm Moss Adams.  The audit was “clean,” meaning the auditor has confidence in the numbers reported and the internal controls used to develop the reports. 

The meeting of the full Board of Trustees will convene Thursday at 8 a.m. Materials for that meeting are available at http://trustees.uoregon.edu/2015-16-meetings. The meeting will be streamed live on The UO Channel.

— By Amanda Hatch, Office of the Secretary of the University