The Board of Trustees for the University of Alabama System met Thursday and Friday in the Sellers Auditorium at the Bryant Conference Center. At the meeting, trustees and committee members discussed the UA System’s financial future, construction efforts and more, including a vote to approve the University of Alabama’s School of Data Science.
The UA Investment Committee kicked off the Board meeting, presenting the University System’s two major endowment funds. The UA Pooled Endowment Fund — an almost $3 billion investment pool composed largely of gifts and endowments by private individuals — returned 19.3% over the past year, beating the committee’s annualized growth goal of 7%. That goal is meant to keep the fund stable in perpetuity, adding an assumed annual rate of 2.5% inflation and 4.5% spending.
“Don’t expect a 19% return every year, but it’s nice when it happens,” said Nolan Bean, the UA System’s Chief Investment Officer, adding that the 5-year annualized growth rate of 8.0% “achieved the mission” of stable purchasing power.
Bean also recommended that the UA System invest more in private equity, with the Board of Trustees voting to implement the new recommendations.
After the Finance Committee approved four more motions, the Physical Properties Committee took the floor to propose four new construction items, all of which were approved.
The first proposal was for a new budget for the renovation of Farrah Hall, the old site of the University of Alabama School of Law that is set to house the School of Leadership and Policy. The project’s new budget reduced the estimated cost of renovations by almost $12 million.
The second construction item was for restoration of Moundville Archaeological Park, reviving the effort after it stalled out in 2020. Storm drainage systems and Mound B are among the targets of the restoration project. The vast majority of the initiative will be funded by an $8 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The third item was the demolition of the Environmental Health and Safety Building, to be replaced with green space.
Finally, the committee sought approval for the architectural design plans for an addition and renovations to the Capstone College of Nursing. The construction project is set to include a pedestrian bridge, safely connecting the Druid City Hospital to the nursing campus.
On the second day of the Board of Trustees meeting, the Academic and Student Affairs Committee proposed new academic degree programs, a Master’s and Bachelor’s in public policy, to be housed in the new School of Leadership and Policy.
After the presentation by senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs Tonjanita Johnson, UA President Peter Mohler took the floor to propose the new School of Data Science. “We are living in an increasingly data-driven world,” Mohler said. “Advanced technologies and artificial intelligence are no longer embedded in the basement of the engineering school and span across all disciplines.”
While the University already has several degree programs related to data science — including a B.S. in Data Science through the Department of Mathematics — Mohler said that an interdisciplinary school would serve as a “convening platform” to connect expertise in computing from across the University. The program would also serve as a hub for infrastructure, such as the High Performance Computing Center, and for student programs in “big data, machine learning and AI.”
Mohler played a promotional trailer featuring Nan Boden, a UA alum and former chief of staff at Google, before proposing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in applied data science. Mohler said that the new school would require a $5.3 million annual budget, funding 10 to 12 full-time faculty and seven full-time support staff members. “I am eager to see what our students and faculty can accomplish in and through the School of Data Science,” Mohler said before the Board voted to approve the proposal.
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