JULIA MARTINEZ, staff reporter

Recreation center renovations, the price of tuition, and a letter supporting the CHCI were all topics discussed in the weekly Tuesday meeting of the Associated Students of CWU Board of Directors.

Kelsey Furstenwerth, vice president for Student Life and Facilities, explained that the first floor of the SURC will have new flooring put down in the entrances and the dining floor.

“We have our project architect working on a design, we’re still in the planning process,” said Bob Ford, director of campus life.

The window of renovation will be somewhere between Aug. 22 and Sept. 15.

“It will be after all of the freshman orientations and before school starts,” Furstenwerth said.

According to Ford, they need a designer to go out and develop the project and give them cost estimates. That way they can “work through the proposal process and get approval to spend those funds” since the proposal hasn’t been approved yet.

If the proposal is not approved in time, the renovations will be pushed off until a time when there are fewer students on campus, Ford said. Summer is the quarter where there are fewest students attending classes and using the SURC.

According to Ford, the renovation funds had already been budgeted for in the preservation of the facility and were part of the original business plan for the building.

Newcomer Jackie Sperlich, vice president for Academic Affairs, spoke on focus groups within the Student Academic Senate that were discussing a conversion from quarters to semesters and gen ed reform.

The SAS has been working closely with the faculty senate to gain input from both sides, according to Sperlich. Focus groups have also gone out to gain input from students.

“So far it doesn’t look like anything is going to happen right now,” Sperlich said.

According to Sperlich, Central’s gen ed program hasn’t been updated recently.

“Some  [students] think they’re beneficial and then others think they are not beneficial,” Sperlich said.

The discussion about general ed reform has been tabled at the faculty senate and is not expected to move any further any time soon.

Brianne Wood, vice president for Legislative Affairs, covered how the school might attempt to stifle tuition costs by adding a 20 percent surcharge to the tuition of international students.

“It’s not a feasible thing for states to be accepting more international students to pay the bills and that’s what we have seen at other universities, it’s not something you typically see at Central,” Wood said.

According to the CWU website, tuition for a full-time, in-state undergrad is $2647. A full-time, non-resident would have to pay $6191 and an international student would be expected to pay an extra $1238 on top of additional expenses with their program, moving expenses, and living in campus housing for the first year, according to Sperlich.

“It’s a relatively small population but I think that they’re a pretty valuable population,” Sperlich said.

Central would start to see fewer international students if the surcharge were applied. Discussion and debate will continue on the topic, according to Wood.

Bryan Elliott, vice president for Equity and Community Affairs, brought up the last Ellensburg city council meeting, where he and several student representatives from CHCI spoke to gain the support of the city council in order to keep the facility

“This was an appropriate issue to take before the city council,” Elliott said.

City council member, Tony Aronica, voted to write a letter in support of keeping the CHCI, and it was unanimously voted on. The letter was then sent to President Gaudino.

“He’s aware of what’s going on, especially with CHCI, because he actually spoke a little bit on it after I spoke at the alumni association meeting,“ said Elliott.

Another problem Elliott is currently working on is that of tuition assistance being cut off for veterans and service members.

“We’re working to get a policy that would basically state that in the event that tuition assistance for veterans and service members gets turned off due to budgetary problems at the congressional level, the administration would step in and cover the cost that was no longer being covered by the assistance,” Elliott said.

The administration sent out a memo on March 1 stating that it would cover cuts in tuition assistance to Central students due to the sequester, but said nothing about veterans and service members.

The policy is currently not in effect but is being worked on by Elliott.

The next BOD meeting will be in SURC 301, next Tuesday at