Two TN Board of Regents committees and committee chairs to meet March 10

Two committees of the Tennessee Board of Regents and the chairs of the board’s six standing committees will meet Tuesday, March 10, to review and consider a number of items in advance of the full board’s next quarterly meeting, March 26.

The Finance and Business Operations Committee will convene at 10 a.m. CT March 10 to consider approval of its recommendations for student incidental fees for Academic Year 2020-21. It will be followed consecutively by meetings of the Audit Committee and then the Committee Chairs.

The meetings will be held in the boardroom at the TBR system office, 1 Bridgestone Park, Nashville, TN 37214. The meetings are open to the public, except for an executive session of the Audit Committee following its public session. Contact Board Secretary Sonja Mason at sonja.mason@tbr.edu or 615-366-3927 by 4:30 p.m. March 9 to facilitate security access or to request accommodations.

The Finance and Business Operations Committee will consider requests from four community colleges for action on a total of eight separate incidental fees: four new fees (one at Dyersburg State, one at Southwest Tennessee, two at Volunteer State), three small increases in existing fees (at Southwest Tennessee) and one change in the basis of an existing fee (at Chattanooga State). Details are in the March meeting materials to be posted on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/board/march-quarterly-meeting.

Incidental fees are charges for specific classes, labs, course material, licensure exams, and services to individual students and not billed to all students at a college. Whatever fee changes the committee recommends will go to the full Board of Regents for final action at its March 26 quarterly meeting. (Incidental fees are separate from general mandatory fees – such as technology fees and student activity fees – and tuition that are billed to all full-time students enrolled at a college. Tuition and any potential changes in mandatory fees for 2020-21 will be considered by the board at its June meeting.)

The Finance and Business Operations Committee will also consider revisions to the TBR policy Financial Administration in Intercollegiate Athletics. The two primary recommendations to be considered are increases in the athletic expenditure cap and the number of out-of-state scholarships, both as a result of the addition of new sports.

The Audit Committee public session agenda includes review of recent audit reports, revisions to audit plans for Fiscal Year 2020 and new internal audit charters for Jackson State and Nashville State community colleges.

The Committee Chairs meeting is primarily to preview and plan agenda items for the full board’s next quarterly meeting and hear informational updates from TBR staff. The Committee Chairs agenda includes updates on the search for a new president at Jackson State Community College and activities of the TBR offices of External Affairs, Business and Finance, and Academic Affairs, and proposed policy changes regarding inter-institutional relationships and off-campus offerings, development and operation of off-campus international education programs, and faculty emeritus designations.