Eastern Kentucky University’s President says the school’s financial ship is steady and moving forward. EKU’s Board of Regents Monday approved a $355 million budget for the year beginning July 1. A court battle over Governor Bevin’s decision to reduce funding for this year continues.
President Michael Benson says tough decisions will need to be made before next July, "The real heavy lifting is gonna come in the next several months when the faculty come back and we start the process of really ernest program review and some other things, that we look on the staff side as well."
University officials are working on projects ranging from new housing to dining and recreation. Benson admits, parking is always a high priority. Eastern Board of Regents members were briefed this week on plans for the school’s first parking structure.
Benson says a second parking facility is under study to allow for capital construction eventually on currently-paved sites. “If we’re gonna have really measured informed sustained growth, we need to try to transform some of those surface lots into future building use and then come up with a parking plan which we we’re developing as we speak,”
Benson says that might include developing parking sites along the perimeter of the university and additional shuttle service. ?
