Francis Marion Trustees approve Master Plan, budget
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The footprint of Francis Marion University has been expanding in Florence over the last few years. Approval of the 2017 Campus Development Master Plan during the June 22 Board of Trustee’s quarterly meeting means that the building program is not stopping any time soon.
“The number one priority going forward with the Master Plan will be the renovation of the old post office,” said FMU President Dr. Fred Carter. “Hopefully we’ll begin work on that next summer, assuming that the state bond bill is passed in this next legislative session.”
In February, the university announced that it would purchase the old post office building across the street from the Luther F. Carter Center for Health Sciences through a partnership with the City of Florence and the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation. Once renovated, the building will house the university’s therapy programs.
“That renovation will take about a year,” Carter said. “So that building would essentially be ready for use as a medical health education classroom building in the summer of 2019.”
Next on the list of priorities is a facility for the university’s honors program.
“The second priority would, of course, be our Honors Center home of, what we hope will be, our honors program, our international program and the McNair Center,” Carter said. “Hopefully we’ll acquire the funding for that facility, the remainder of the funding for that facility, over the next two years. We are hopeful that that Honors Center will be open no later than the fall of 2020 and we can move those programs over to that building.”
Third on the building to-do list is a home for the School of Education and the School of Business.
“That is dependent, again, on a subsequent bond bill that would be robust enough to provide the $23 million necessary for the funding of that building. I don’t expect that to materialize in the next few years. Ultimately, I think we will be successful in building that building.”
Aside from these construction and renovation projects, FMU will also undertake other renovations on the campus as money becomes available for them. The first project will be the replacement of the main campus entranceway during the 2017 fall semester.
In other business, trustees approved the 2017-2018 budget of more than $57 million, including a 3 percent increase in tuition. Carter said that outside forces made the increase necessary.
“This board never takes a tuition increase lightly; it is difficult to ask students to pay more,” Carter said. “I do want to remind the board…that this tuition is essentially paying for some costs pushed down to us by the state. It is increased cost pertaining to employer’s share of pension and increased cost pertaining to the employer’s share on health insurance premiums. Absent those two mandates, the tuition wouldn’t be as heavy as it is. But those are costs that have to be dealt with.”