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LHU student fees increase for 2017-18

LOCK HAVEN — Some student fees are higher at Lock Haven University for the coming academic year.

The fees for living in a traditional residence hall and the fees for living in Campus Village have increased by 3 percent. Living in a double room in a residence hall, for example, will cost $3,164 per semester. At Campus Village, living in an efficiency, for example, will cost $4,058 per semester.

The fees have not changed at Fairview Suites, the newest student residence option on campus. The fee for living in a double room in Fairview Suites is $3,882, and the fee for a single room is $4,242.

The residence fees cover all costs of maintaining and running the halls, including residence life programming.

LHU has also created a cancellation fee schedule, which will be easier on students. Before, a student who signed a housing contract then changed his plans still had to pay the fee for a full semester.

Meal plan fees have increased by an average of 8 percent. These fees cover all costs of maintaining and running the food service facilities in Bentley Hall cafeteria, NanoBites on East Campus, the C3 Express Cafe in Willis Health Professional Building, and the convenience store in Robinson Learning Center.

The student facilities fee also has gone up, by $7 per semester, to $247. This fee funds Parsons Union Building and the Student Recreation Center.

The Lock Haven University Council of Trustees recently approved the fee increases.

The trustees also heard from Morgan Bailey, the most recent president of the student government board. She said suggestion tables were set up around campus this spring to find out what students would most like to see improved. The majority said the food could be better, she reported.

She also said more than 2,700 students participated in one or more student clubs, and the campus had more than 121 active clubs, not including Greek life (fraternities and sororities).

EVENTS THIS FALL

Homecoming 2017 will be held the week of Sept. 18 to 23. The date is earlier this year due to the football schedule, the trustees learned.

The annual LHU Alumni Golf Tournament will be held Friday, Sept. 22 at the Clinton Country Club. A Sip and Dip event is scheduled at the club for those who do not golf. Also that day, a student pep rally is planned, as is the block party for the community and a fireworks display.

Saturday’s events include the annual 5K race in the morning, a pre-game party at noon at Durrwachter Alumni Conference Center, and the football game against West Chester, kicking off at 2 p.m.

“All-In” will be held Nov. 28, the National Day of Giving. All-In is a concentrated effort of students reaching out to alumni and asking them to support the university. In 2016, the effort raised $245,400 in a 24-hour period.

The All-In goal for this year is $300,000.

NEW FACES & MORE

Dr. Susan Rimby, founding dean of LHU’s College of Liberal Arts and Education, has retired. She will be replaced by Dr. Kyoko Amano who brings skills in management and leadership, as well as a wealth of experience in international education, honors education, and peace studies to LHU, the trustees heard.

The university also will welcome 13 new tenure-track faculty members this coming academic year.

LHU students may soon have a public bus service available to take them around town, and even to and from Jersey Shore and Williamsport. The university is a partner with local governments, industries and others in an effort to get this proposed service up and running.

LHU currently offers students “trolley” buses that have limited stops off campus.

The trustees heard the proposed new bus system described as a connection to Lock Haven and other communities that will be important to prospective and current students, as well as to regional development on the whole.

The university’s new website is up and running and can be found at www.lockhaven.edu. Online visitors using the old web address (lhup.edu) are automatically directed to the new page.

PASSHE STUDY

The nonprofit National Center for Higher Education Management Systems is studying Lock Haven University and the 13 other state system universities.

The comprehensive study should present options to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) at a time when many of the state universities are being squeezed between decreases in enrollments, increases in costs, and decreases in state funding.

In the course of the study, the consultants and the PASSHE chancellor have visited the local campus, the trustees heard. LHU President Dr. Michael Fiorentino reported that the chancellor, Frank Brogan, spent time with students and seemed pleased with what he learned.

All the university presidents were to meet with the consultants before the final report is written, he said. The study could be completed this summer.

LHU is one of the universities affected by falling student numbers. There are a variety of reasons, but a major one is that there simply aren’t as many new high school graduates to draw from in this region of the country right now.

At the same time, the university is seeing stronger graduation rates, according to Provost and Executive Vice President Donna Wilson.

This spring, the university conferred degrees on 109 master degree recipients, 470 bachelor degree recipients, and 69 graduates of associate degree programs, for a total of 757 degrees.

In the last decade, four-year cumulative graduation rates at Lock Haven University have increased from 27.8 percent to 36.9 percent. The university’s goal is for that number to reach 45 percent.

The five-year rates in the same period went up from 44.9 percent to 51.9 percent, and the six-year rates increased from 47.8 percent to 48 percent. (The six-year rate was 50.3 percent in 2016). The university’s goal for the six-year rate is 60 percent.

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