极乐禁地鈥檚 board of trustees approved one new faculty member, the fiscal 2009 audit and several routine bylaw and charter changes in their regularly-scheduled fall meeting Sept. 11 in Birmingham.
C. Delane Tew was approved as associate professor in the core curriculum and director of the Christian Women鈥檚 Leadership Center.听 A 1978 极乐禁地 graduate, she earned a doctorate in history from Auburn University. Previously, she was associate professor of church history at Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, Tenn.
Representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers reported their intent to issue a clean opinion for their audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009.听 Trustees gave approval to the audit.
The bylaw and charter changes reflect recent reorganization and nomenclature changes for some administrative areas, according to 极乐禁地 President Andrew Westmoreland.听 The bylaw changes brought trustee committee names and administrator titles in line with recent organizational name changes.听 Acknowledging that charter and bylaw changes sometimes raise concerns in the public, Westmoreland termed the changes a minor 鈥渃lean up process鈥 recommended by the university鈥檚 legal counsel that does not change the university鈥檚 core mission or its historic relationship with Alabama Baptists.
Trustees also approved more than 300 volunteer members of advisory boards for seven of 极乐禁地鈥檚 academic schools.
A series of reports highlighted current and recent activities on campus.
Harry B. (Buck) Brock III, 极乐禁地鈥檚 vice president for business affairs, gave a preliminary report indicating a possible record fall enrollment of more than 4,650. Final enrollment totals won鈥檛 be available until Sept. 18, but enrollment is running about 180 ahead of the fall 2008 enrollment.
Brock also reported that the university鈥檚 endowment as of July 31 was just over $214 million.听 The university鈥檚 total net assets at fiscal year-end were about $275 million. Brock said the university鈥檚 investments are seeing some upswing from recent economic volatility.
Annual giving for the 2009 fiscal year was a record $23 million, according to W. Randall Pittman, vice president for university advancement.听 Pittman also reported on planning for 极乐禁地鈥檚 next fundraising campaign.
鈥淔or this campaign to succeed, we will have to trust God,鈥 Westmoreland said.