By Gary Hermann

Campus renovations and the presidential search was the primary focus of the board of trustees meeting Tuesday night.

At the Student Affairs Committee Meeting, a $23 million renovation was announced for the Student Center.

“It’s the most we can do given the circumstances that we have,” Student Government President Ryan Smith said.

More than $17 million for the project will come from agency bonds and over $5 million will come from cash on hand.

There will be an increase under the 6 percent cap for tuition and student fees to help pay for the renovation which will effect internal and external features of the building.

“We want to open up the facility, so the student can feel and experience where their money went,” Vice President for Student Affairs Robert Mock Jr. said.

The students will be able to have a large amount of input regarding their Student Center.

“We’re going to get feedback from students,” Mock said. “We’re going to go back to SG and say ‘OK, now this is the dollar amount we are working with. What would you like to see?’ We’re going to try to integrate as much of their input as we can.”

Smith spoke about the success of Cats Cruiser and DanceBlue, which set a record for funds raised.

Cats Cruiser is having 700 riders per weekend and has been funded through the end of 2011, according to Smith.

At the meeting, many topics surrounded President Lee Todd’s retirement and the hiring of his successor.

A committee was established to plan a celebration of the presidency of Todd.

It was also established that the presidential search process would adhere to total confidentiality. The process would become open only if “all finalists agree.”

There is a plan in place to bring the preferred candidate to UK before a final hire is made.

Chief Information Officer Vince Klein presented on information technology at UK and said there is a 51 percent growth among instructors using Blackboard.

UK Distance Learning and the UK mobile application are also rapidly growing, Klein said.

Todd spoke about many of the successes of UK this school year including the Kentucky Satellite, the Gatton Business School CPA program, the Patterson School iPads, and Awesome Touch, a student company.

“We do unique things here,” Todd said. “We take ideas and concepts and apply them across the state.”

Todd said the first December commencement ceremony was a “wonderful experience,” and that he would like to add “a personal touch to the spring commencement.”

Todd also addressed the contract extension of Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart.

“It is my responsibility to recruit and retain top talent to this university,” Todd said. “I’d like to have done it a year ago.”

The College of Education Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) was approved by the board. The Telecommunications program has been renamed Media Arts and Studies.

During the meetings, UK accepted more than $5.6 million in gifts and pledges, according to a press release.