At yesterdays meeting John Affleck-Graves came to talk to us. He was very nice and sincere and talked about the financial aspects of the university and of course that included some talk about salaries. Although the university is in pretty good shape the endowment fund is down by 20% and the reason for that is probably due to fluctuations in the stock market. Our salaries take 25-30% from the endowment fund.
Compared to the top 20 colleges ND has raised their tuition by 7% in the past years. That makes us one of the highest in the country which is a concern to Mr. Graves because we don't want to price our selves out of the college market. There will be a new 7 yr. campaign to increase the endowment to help the operating fund for the university. Another concern is the cost of benefits for the university so they plan to find ways to help the rising cost. (don't worry they don't expect us to help with that cost).

THE IDEA OF CHARGING FOR PARKING IS A DEAD ISSUE!!!!! We are one of the few universities that does not charge for parking and they intend to keep it that way.

The position for V.P. in HR has not been filled, they hope to have it filled by December, but if a candidate has not been found by then they will not rush into hiring someone.

Mr. Graves talked about the 10 yr. plan for the ND, that will include 4 new dorms and several new buildings, 2 of the dorms will sit where Juniper is now. They are putting them up towards the north because they feel that the university has moved too far south. The 10 yr. plan does not take away any parking space on campus. With Juniper closing and the straightening of Edison that allows for more room.

There were some questions asked, one of them was why are new buildings being built if we have no money. These building are being built due to the fact that a donor had endowed the money for that purpose and it can not be used for anything else other than that for which it was given.

Enough financial talk, the other issue brought up was about the luncheon on Wednesday. I asked if they could do a Honorary Mention to the groups or persons that were nominated. It was also brought up about the issue of the quality of food. One of the chefs was at the meeting and he said that the food is prepared and put on the plates 1 1/2 hrs. before it is served which lowers the quality and it is not something that he is proud of. A lot of employees do not or can not attend the luncheon for various reasons, so the discussion lead to possibly having the awards with out the meal and then go back to having the picnic that we have had in the past. The picnic eliminates departments closing or not being able to come at all instead 1/2 of the department could come and then go back so the others could come too. Some of the problems from past picnics were brought up such as employees bringing their families and taking home food. The suggestion was brought up that we could have to show our ND ID to get into the picnic. Hopefully these suggestions will be taken into consideration and we may see a change for next year.