WESTFIELD – The Board of Trustees for Westfield State University unanimously approved a mandatory fee increase of $435, or roughly five percent, for the upcoming fall semester, a number Board Chairman John Flynn III said he “wrestled with.”
Whether or not the University will implement the full $435 fee increase is dependent on whether the Commonwealth’s legislature honors the commitment it made last year when it made a three-year pledge to get the state’s universities back to 50-50 funding.
The current budget coming out of the House provides around 50 percent of the funding needed to honor the legislature’s commitment, while the current Senate budget offers only level funding for the state universities.
The Senate has still pledged full funding for the University of Massachusetts in their current budget.
Should the legislature honors the terms outlined last year, Westfield State and it’s sister institutions will not be forced to implement the approved fee increases. The approved $435 increase will not affect the university’s tuition, which will remain $970.
Total costs for a residential in-state student will be $18,250 for fiscal year 2015, an increase of $855, or nearly five percent, from last year’s fee of $17,395 for fiscal year 2014.
Total costs cover tuition, fees, and average room and board.
“Obviously the state funding for the institution, and the universities in general, is a challenge and we somehow have to figure out how to do more with less with an eye on next year,” said Board Finance Committee Chair Kevin Queenin.
The meeting also marked progress for the school’s presidential search committee, as a budget of $125,000 was granted to Trustees Steven Marcus and Tirrell Hill, who were appointed at the board’s previous meeting to head the committee.
“I just want to thank everyone for their hard work in trying to pull this together, specifically on the finance side with allowing the appropriate monies to be set aside to find our next leader,” said Marcus, who also thanked the board and the school’s unions for providing a roster of candidates to get the search started.
“I think it’s most prudent to wait until the entire Board of Trustees is brought together to begin the entire process,” he said.
The funds will go toward hiring a professional search firm to select the school’s next president.
The meeting also marked the final meeting for Flynn, the chief administrative officer for the Massachusetts State Police and a 1979 WSU graduate, who has served as a trustee since 2005.
The Board voted to approve Vice Chair and former Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel to replace Flynn, as well as elevating Marcus to the vice chairmanship and Hill to secretary.
In what proved to be an emotional and teary eyed sendoff, Flynn thanked the entire board and touched on his tenure as Chairman, which proved to be one of the more trying periods in the school’s history, the result of the spending scandal involving now ex-President Dr. Evan S. Dobelle.
“The couple years, I’ve really relied on Betsy (Scheibel) and Kevin (Queenin). There hasn’t been a day I haven’t spoken to Kevin on the phone, there hasn’t been an evening when I haven’t talked to Betsy on the ride home,” he said. “Their guidance, leadership, and mentorship – I think I’ve been able to navigate as best as God has allowed me. You guys are a great group and I’m gonna miss the heck out of these meetings.”
Flynn gave a ringing endorsement for current President Dr. Elizabeth Preston, who was named as an interim following Dobelle’s retirement last Fall.
“I know we had a motion tonight about the presidential search, and I wish you all well on that, but to be candid with you, I’d like to just to throw the search out the window. We have a pretty good president right now,” he said of Preston. “And though she’s been yelling at me for the last ten years in one way shape or form, we’ve become extremely close, and I’m going to miss you. You’ve done a great job.”
In a statement, Preston thanked Flynn for his service to the University.
“Jack has put the interest of the university before his own interests, providing exceptional leadership at considerable personal cost. Westfield State simply could not have had a better or more effective trustee.” she said, referring to him and outgoing Student Trustee Stone Koury as “exceptional stewards of the institution” and “exactly the people you want to have as partners during a time of difficult challenges.”
