This year the Board of Trustees welcomed seven new members, as four others retired.

According to the Chair of the Board of Trustees Joe Bryan the Board’s fall meeting which was held this past weekend was very productive. President Kent Chabotar said that most of the work was done on separate committees, which then brought their reports and the issues to the Board.

The Board ended up approving the proposed revised budget based on increased enrollment which produced income that the College had not anticipated.

“Enrollment numbers became official on Oct. 1 and we ended up at 2833 which is an all time record for the college by 145 students,” said Ty Buckner, director of communications and marketing. “Because of that and because we’re so tuition and fee in come-driven we do have more income than we anticipated.”

According Buckner, the College has $1.7 million in funds we didn’t expect, and for now, we plan on spending about $900,000.

Vice-President for Finance and Administration Jerry Boothby said that some of the funds will possibly be released “for one-time budget needs in November and a further review in February, once the second semester enrollment numbers are finalized.”

Boothby said that “$358,000 was allocated for a 3.5 percent salary and wage increase for faculty and staff that will become effective on Jan. 1, 2010.”

$335,000 will be allocated for capital projects-the largest of which is the chiller for Bryan hall which is what runs the air conditioning and is ticketed at about $210,000. Buckner said that the remainder of the $335,000 will be spent on maintenance.

The rest of the funds, which total about $200,000 will be spent on “odds and ends-$5,000 here and $10,000 there,” said Buckner.

While the College’s high enrollment rates have increased the income, Community Senate Vice President junior Trevor Corning attended the enrollment and finance committee meeting and said that the committee discussed “the concern that some of our goals for 2009-2010 were not met for enrollment demographics.”

Among the highlights were a presentation on Principled Problem Solving (PPS) by Mark Justad, the director of the Center for Principled Problem Solving and a retreat led by Dr. Thomas Longin on strategic thinking and planning, as the College is getting prepared to write the new Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP).

“Principled Problem Solving has been developing over the years as part of the Strategic Plan and Justad pointed out how it can be incorporated into the academic program,” said Bryan. “It will eventually involve all students.”

The Board also heard a presentation by Dean of Students Aaron Fetrow on Guilford’s smoking policies and the possibilities of a smoke-free campus.

Community Senate President, senior Nancy Klosteridis attended the Student Affairs committee meeting in which the smoking policy was discussed and she said that the biggest issues concerning smoking were cigarette butts the wellness of non-smokers and the wellness of smokers.

The proposal was put forth to make the main part of campus tobacco-free, which according to Klosteridis, which mean “the road that incircles Frank, Bryan, Milner, the athletic areas, and the part of campus encircled by Friendly and New Garden. Thus, smoking would be restricted to the lake and woods area, and from the new apartments to the north edge of campus.”

Bryan said that while the Board has endorsed the idea of a smoke-free campus, “we have not officially approved anything yet because we need to know more technicalities which the committee doesn’t have,” said Bryan.

Klosteridis stood aside on bringing this proposal to the Trustees for several reasons.

“I believe it will cause problems for our neighbors, namely New Garden Meeting House and the Quaker Village,” said Klosteridis. “I also believe it is not enforcable. We have two public safety officers, 300 acres and 300 plus smokers.”

Chabotar said that a vote for approval is too early.

“First we’ve got to better enforce our current smoking policy which is pretty moderate,” said Chabotar. “If you can’t enforce the 50 percent then you can’t enforce 100 percent.