The Board of Trustees held a meeting in late June concerning tuition hikes and the approval of minors in academic departments. The main focus of the meeting was discussing ways to increase enrollment.

A presentation was given by Jimmy Jung, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs.

The presentation covered the following: the enrollment percentage at NJCU and surrounding schools; advertising for new incoming freshman (new areas outside of Jersey City, Bayonne, Union City); the benefits of advertising of the new Harborside School of Business and the new West Side dormitories; and challenges regarding retention (although no strategies were presented in order to help the problem).

Dr. Karen Morgan, mathematics professor, presented on a faculty retreat that took place over the summer, which covered a discussion of the Center for Student Success, and a discussion of a new academic tracking system. This system focuses on encouraging students to take 15 credits per semester to promote graduating in four years.

The next item for discussion was the new cuts to the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) budget. Starting in fall 2015, OSP students will be receiving less funding, and the traditional summer classes will not be offered.

Academic Affairs proposed a new Master of Science and Nursing program that included a $2,000 scholarship.

The following academic programs were also approved in the meeting: bachelors degree exercise science, academic minor program in accounting, interdisciplinary minor program in cinema studies, and a multidisciplinary minor program in entrepreneurship.

Prior to announcing the agreed tuition and fees increase, several students discussed their concern about the inaccessibility of NJCU to its regular population, the inability of students to participate in extracurricular activities due to the parking rate change, and transportation issues regarding the new school of business at Harborside Financial Center; no solutions to the concerns were not presented by the trustees.

After the students’ concerns were addressed, the percentages of the tuition and fees increase for the academic year of 2015 through 2016 were announced. The decisions were the following: tuition has been raised by 3%, dorm rates has been raised by 8%, and the GSUB parking rates have increased to $11 per hour.