Chancellor Victor Boschini started Friday’s Town Hall meeting with a PowerPoint presentation called “TCU 2020: An Update Where We Are, Where We Are Going“, which highlighted TCU’s recent accomplishments and discussed upcoming projects.
The meeting was held in the Dee J. Kelly Alumni Center at noon, and Boschini expressed that one of his main goals is to bring more diversity to campus.
He also discussed the progress of buildings that have recently been renovated or added to TCU’s campus including the Mary Couts Burnett Library, the Multipurpose Building and Rees-Jones Hall.
Boschini said there are plans to add additional space to the Neeley School of Business.
He also said that Colby Hall will now look like “Milton Daniel on steroids inside”.
As far as the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum construction goes, Boschini said that the parking in front of the building will go away and the space will become a park.
“And then all of the parking, plus tons more, will go over [near the Kelly Alumni Center],” said Boschini.
There will be two parking garages. Boschini said one will replace the surface parking in Worth Hills and the other will be for visitors and students.
“Our problem with part of the campus, we made the BLUU so cool and new. Then we’re fixing the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. This [Kelly Alumni Center] building’s always crowded. And then the problem is if we ever have a night where something’s going on in each building, which is every night, you can’t park anywhere. And so the parking garage will help that.”
He announced that there are plans to expand the Kelly Alumni Center building as well, but the campaign to raise funding is being held off until parking is fixed.
Boschini also discussed the TCU operating budget.
Compensation and benefits for faculty and staff accounts for 41% of the budget and 24% of the budget is going to financial aid.
Boschini addressed the idea of higher tuition stopping students from attending TCU. “That’s not true, because we’ve actually had more people coming than in the past,” said Boschini.
He acknowledged that high tuition serves as a barrier between students and TCU, but assured that financial aid is trying to help.
“Tuition’s gone up 55 percent since 2008 but financial aid’s gone up 204 percent,” said Boschini.
Boschini said it would take an endowment of about $2 billion.
“Right now our endowment’s about $1.46 billion, so the next campaign we have for TCU we’re going to work on that,” said Boschini.
He said that a lot of the last campaign went to building, but TCU is trying to emphasize people and programs in the next campaign.
“Right now what’s really hurting us, and a lot of other people, is the price of oil, because a lot of our donor base is tied to oil and gas and both oil and gas are down right now,” said Boschini.
Boschini’s presentation lasted 15 minutes, then it was time for the question and answer segment.
Most of the questions were about how the Chancellor went about getting funding for TCU’s projects and students. He explained that it is to convince people to donate to what the campus needs, like scholarships and residence halls, rather than academic and athletic buildings with their namesake.
The meeting adjourned at 12:57 p.m., but not before the chancellor asked everyone in attendance to stand up and introduce themselves.
