Administrative Forum Discusses Future of CUNE
Senators meet in the Thom Auditorium. Photo courtesy of Victoria Cameron.
By Kaytlyn Kindschy
Student Senate hosted an Administrative Forum during their regular meeting time where a panel including CUNE’s Chief Financial Officer Dave Kumm, Vice President of Student Affairs Gene Brooks, Interim President Russel Sommerfeld and Director of Student Development Rebekah Freed came to discuss different plans for the future of the school and concerns that students have regarding these plans.
Kumm shared some information from a presentation made by the panel about the plans to renovate and expand the music building that are targeted to begin in the spring of 2021.
“Within the plan for the renovations, we plan to increase the space and the number of practice rooms,” Kumm said. “We are trying to get this project to be completely donor funded to avoid using operating costs.”
Plans for tuition prices for the 2020-21 academic year and meal plans were also presented. Before financial aid, the full-time tuition cost is $34,200 which is a 4% increase from this academic year.
Along with this, the new Unlimited Meal Plan for the next academic year will be replacing the 21-meal block plan from previous academic years. The Unlimited Plan allows students to come into the cafeteria as many times a day during operating hours, eating as much or as little as they would like. With these changes also come changes to the cafeteria hours of operations. Monday-Friday, Janzow will be open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m., giving students more opportunities to come in and have access to meals.
Students in attendance of the forum brought up their concern for the future anticipated enrollment shrinkage and what CUNE plans to do to avoid this problem, to which the faculty responded with Concordia’s plans to use enrollment strategies that make the university distinctive to prospective students.
“We are taking a look at what programs we offer that we can enhance to attract new students,” Sommerfeld said.
CUNE has also been working to help students from Concordia Portland transfer from their studies there to continuing their studies with us by trying to equal their experiences and costs from Portland.
The rumors of off-campus housing becoming harder to apply for was brought up by other students. Brooks explained the issue of empty dorm rooms making costs higher.
“When developing the dorms, Concordia focused on being a residential campus because of the sense of community that happens on campus,” Brooks said. “The more students who live in the dorms on campus, the lower we can keep the costs for you.”
If students do not fit the requirements for off-campus living, appeals will not be accepted unless students request to live off-campus with parents or a health condition is a concern.
Administration is continually planning for the future of the university and there are more programs being developed that are not ready to be announced yet, but students can look for this information in the future.
