The Ohio State Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet this week to discuss raising the cost of football and men’s basketball tickets, renaming Central Classroom Building and changing the university seal.
The meeting, set for Thursday and Friday, is the first time the 19 Trustees are scheduled to meet in 2013 and since the football team finished with a 12-0 season in November. The football team, coach Urban Meyer and Athletic Director Gene Smith are expected to be honored when the Board reconvenes Friday after Thursday’s committee meetings.
The Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday to approve a price increase in men’s basketball and football tickets for the 2013 seasons. The Board meeting agenda reveals that the university has not raised ticket prices in three years.
The agenda states “the Athletics Department contributes financially to the university’s academic mission, returning about 25 percent of its budget each year to the university to support libraries, scholarships and other academic needs.”
Facing rising operating costs of athletic facilities on campus, the Board will vote to increase the price of student tickets by $2 to $34 per game and the public football price by $9 per game. The Board can opt to “designate up to two home football games as ‘premier games’ which would price tickets between $79 and a maximum of $125 and $150 per game, or a maximum $175 for a single game.
However, no student tickets will be designated as premier games, and there will be no additional price increases.
Faculty tickets for men’s basketball games will see an increase of $4.50 for conference game bowl seats and $3 for upper bowl seats. For conference games, a $1 per game charge will also be added for student tickets in any section. According to OhioStateBuckeyes.com, the current faculty and staff packages range from $132 to $470.
The Board would also implement the premier game option for up to five conference games. For those conference or non-conference games, personal seat licenses, which give holders the right to buy tickets to a particular seat in the stadium, would increase to $47, public lower bowl tickets to $46, public upper bowl tickets to $25, faculty and staff lower bowl tickets to $37, faculty/staff upper bowl tickets to $20 and student tickets to $13 per game.
Trustees will also vote to move the Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center, which is housed in Hale Hall at 153 W. 12th Ave. Hale is scheduled to be demolished, and the Hale Black Cultural Center will be moved to Enarson Hall at 154 W. 12th Ave., which will be renamed Frank W. Hale, Jr. Hall.
Central Classroom Building, located at 2009 Millikin Road, will be renamed the Harold L. Enarson Classroom Building.
The Board will also vote to approve “The E. Gordon Gee Ohio State Scholarship Fund” which will provide the cost for in-state tuition for a full-time undergraduate student taking classes at the Columbus campus with donations from Gee.
The intent is that the scholarship will support one student in each class level during their time at OSU. Student Financial Aid will select the recipient based on Gee’s “preferred degree program or area of study” for each year. The scholarship will be renewable for four years. The fund, to be established Friday, has an establishing endowment of $256,000 and a total commitment of $1 million.
Several other scholarships are slated to be approved as well.
The trustees are also expected to vote on revising the official university seal. The changes would include replacing the circular “O” with the university’s signature block “O” and enlarging the proportion of the “open book to reinforce the university’s leadership in research and academic excellence.”
This Board of Trustees isn’t scheduled to meet again until April 4 and 5.