A dental school, new degrees, an increase in tuition and fees, and the overall budget are all on the agenda for the Board of Trustees meeting this Thursday, May 26.
According to UCF News & Information, President John C. Hitt said that the College of Dental Medicine would create opportunities for students who want to stay local and receive an education in dentistry. Additionally, he said it would be beneficial to people who cannot afford it, but need dental care as well as an opportunity to create jobs and boost the local economy.
The BOT's agenda for the upcoming meeting states that "the university is proposing to expand the Academic Health Sciences Center at Lake Nona with the addition of a College of Dental Medicine.
Construction of a building at the Lake Nona Campus would begin in 2012, with occupancy and arrival of the first class of 60 students expected in 2014. The College will offer a four-year Doctor of Dental Medicine degree program. The ultimate enrollment is planned to be 394, 100 students in each class adjusted for attrition. The College is not envisioned to request state support in the foreseeable future but will be sustained by revenues generated from student tuition and fees and dental clinical activities. In addition to covering operating costs, the tuition revenues will be sufficient to repay the loan from the university by 2023."
The construction of the school building and start-up funds will be comprised of "a combination of philanthropic gifts, Real Estate Investment Trust and an internal loan advanced by UCF from its auxiliary cash balances," according to the agenda.
According to UCF News & Information, $10 million to start the development will be provided by a private donor who has chosen to give anonymously.
The trustees will also be discussing three new degree programs during the meeting. The degrees that will be discussed are a doctoral degree in security studies, a master's degree in research administration and a bachelor's in Latin American studies. The latter two will be available this fall semester and the security studies program will be available in fall of 2013.
According to the agenda, there is a new program development plan in place that will add new degree programs through 2014. In March 2012 alone, the university plans to add research doctoral degrees in criminal justice, hospitality management, communication sciences and disorders, a master's degree in arts management and bachelor's degrees in women's studies and photonics.
Junior political science major and women's studies minor Kelly Quintero said she heard from her women's studies professors about the potential bachelor's degree in women's studies.
Quintero said one of the issues the women's studies department is facing with the proposal is trying to figure out new courses for the program.
"We're hoping to get it," said Quintero, who is the current president for the National Organization for Women at UCF. "[Women's studies isn't] just a liberal studies thing, there's so much you can do with it. There are a lot of women's studies courses that are seasonal, so I feel like if it were a bachelor's there would be more possibilities to take those courses and finish a degree from UCF."
The biggest tuition and fee increase will be to the undergraduate base tuition and the undergraduate tuition differential. Students currently pay a combined total of $111.55 for those two things. The proposed increase for fall would bring the combined total to $128.28, a 15 percent increase.
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