Samford University’s board of trustees affirmed the framework for a new strategic plan and expanded parking areas during their regular fall meeting Sept. 5 in Birmingham.
The new plan includes four major areas of focus: emphasize student success; enhance our community; extend our reach; and ensure financial strength. Each of the four areas includes four additional “directional statements,” as Samford President Andrew Westmoreland described them.
The plan, which has been in the developmental stages for several months and involved a broad representation of university constituencies, will continue to evolve through the coming year, Westmoreland told trustees.
Trustees also approved plans for 166 additional parking spaces in several locations around campus to accommodate student enrollment growth, the new Brock School of Business building and increased visitors to campus for events. New or expanded lots will be located near the west campus entrance, the baseball/softball complex, near the current maintenance facility and adjacent to the university center.
The university will relocate facilities and maintenance offices and shops to previously unfinished space in the north parking deck. This proposed relocation was included in the original design of the deck when it was constructed in 2007 but postponed until needs dictated. Part of the current maintenance facility will be removed to provide for one of the new parking lots. The other facility will be renovated into additional studios, offices and storage for the art department.
Total cost of the parking and construction projects will be about $7.3 million.
Trustees received a report from representatives of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers accounting firm on the financial audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The university will receive an unqualified “clean” opinion on its financial statements, the representatives said.
Trustees also received a series of positive reports from university administrators, including a 13.9 percent return on endowment investments for the fiscal year that ended June 30 and how Samford has an estimated annual economic impact of more than $335 million on the state of Alabama.
The economic impact information comes from an independent study recently conducted by Samuel Addy and Ahmad Ijaz with the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama.
For 2012–13, the most recent year for which complete data was available, Samford’s economic and fiscal impact was $335.1 million, 2,438 jobs and $13.2 million in income and sales taxes. The majority of the impact — $319 million, $4.3 million in local sales tax revenue and 1,990 jobs — is in the seven-county Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area.
(Samford)
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