UCF Board of Trustees approves purchase of land for teaching hospital

The UCF Board of Trustees voted Thursday to purchase a 25-acre plot of land next to the UCF Health Sciences campus in Lake Nona.

The land will be bought for $15.1 million and will be used to build a teaching hospital that will be within walking distance of the College of Medicine.

The purchase of this land will increase the size of the Health Sciences campus from 50 acres to 75 acres. The first 50 acres were given to UCF for free.

"It truly is, in my opinion, strategic. It would have been a great loss to us had we not acquired it," UCF President John C. Hitt said after the unanimous approval of the purchase.

The Board of Trustees also approved increases to the parking decal fees, on-campus housing rental fees, and the athletic and health fees effective fall 2012.

The price of all parking decals will increase by two percent. For an annual student decal, the price will increase from $88.26 to $90.03, not including taxes.

The athletic fee will increase $0.34 from $13.10 to $13.44 and the health fee will increase $0.42 from $9.88 to $10.30. The activity and service fee will remain $10.79. The total for student fees would increase from $33.77 in fall 2011 to $34.53 in fall 2012.

Increases in rental for student housing range between 1.99 percent to 2.07 percent, depending on the housing facility. The rent for the Rosen College student apartments did not increase.

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