Calvet, a charter member of the Board of Trustees, has been serving as vice chair of the board. She is a former chair of the UCF Foundation, and she has given generously of her time to the Central Florida community in many roles. Among them, she has served on the boards of LYNX and the Community Foundation of Central Florida.

John Sprouls, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Universal Parks & Resorts, is the new vice chair of the Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees on Thursday also unanimously granted chair emeritus status to Michael J. Grindstaff, who served as chair for two years and as a member of the board for five years. Grindstaff is a past chair of the UCF Foundation and a past director of the UCF Athletic Association and UCF Alumni Association.

Grindstaff is a member of the College of Business Administration Hall of Fame, and he won the college’s 50th Anniversary Award for Excellence. He also is a past chairman, president and vice president of the Golden Knights Club.

The state has cut $144 million from UCF’s budget during the past five years, including $52 million this year. Tuition increases have made up for only a portion of those cuts.

“None of us wants to impose additional burdens on our students, but we want to provide them with the best education possible,” said Olga Calvet, vice chair of the Board of Trustees. “We cannot continue to pass on these costs to the students.”

Even with the increases, UCF’s tuition costs would remain among the lowest in the nation. UCF also has been named among the nation’s universities offering the best-value educations by Kiplinger and The Princeton Review, and 49 percent of UCF students graduating last year left with no debt from their time at UCF compared to 33 percent nationally.

Tuition and fees combined for an undergraduate in-state student taking 30 credit hours of courses would increase from $5,584 to $6,247 if the Florida Board of Governors votes next month to approve the amounts set by the Board of Trustees.

Tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student would increase 4 percent, bringing the total tuition and fees to $8,816 for a student taking 24 credit hours.

Trustees and administrators said nobody wants to raise tuition, but they said the impact on students would be severe if the university could not increase tuition and was forced to cut course sections in response to the state cuts. The 2012-13 tuition increase would raise about $20 million, which would support additional class sections, new faculty hires and need-based financial aid.

UCF already has made significant strides in operating as efficiently as possible. Administrative expenses total 39 percent less per student compared with the State ����ֱ�� System average, and the university is saving $4.5 million annually by making campus buildings more energy efficient. However, trustees and administrators said they will continue to look for innovative ways to save money.

Smoke-Free Campus

Trustees also approved a policy to establish smoke-free campuses starting Aug. 20, the first day of classes in the fall. More than 600 other colleges and universities around the country already have smoke-free policies in place.

The new policy covers employees, students, visitors, vendors and others while on all UCF-owned or leased property, including in university vehicles. Out of concern for the health and safety of the UCF community, President John C. Hitt laid the groundwork for the campaign last fall.

Groups such as the Faculty Senate, Student Government Association, USPS Staff Council and Greek Council have supported the initiative, which is designed to encourage a wholesome lifestyle and a change in behavior so that everyone’s right to clean air is respected. It is not designed as a punishment for those who smoke, as there are no fines or other penalties.

To help those who want to stop smoking, UCF is offering cessation services and resources, including individual and group classes, support groups, telephone and online counseling, self-help materials and medications.

For details, visit www.ucf.edu/smokefree.

Honoring Valencia’s President

Trustees approved awarding an honorary doctorate to Valencia College President Sanford C. Shugart. Shugart has served as Valencia’s president since 2000, and Valencia was recognized nationally last year with the Aspen Award for Community College Excellence.

“President Shugart has been a long and valued partner of UCF,” President Hitt said. “His support and engagement with DirectConnect to UCF and the students served through that program are testimony to his commitment to provide access to baccalaureate education and to promote student success.”

Notebook

Trustees voted to grant tenure to more than 30 faculty members from eight colleges and the NanoScience Technology Center.

Navy Capt. William H. “Roto” Rooter IV gave a presentation about the impact of Team Orlando, a community of organizations including UCF, that work together to improve human performance through simulation and provide high-quality training for military personnel. Central Florida is nationally recognized as a hub for modeling and simulation.

New Student Government Association President Cortez Whatley participated in his first Board of Trustees meeting. Whatley also has been elected chair of the Florida Student Association, and he will serve on the Florida Board of Governors.

Trustee Ida Cook was elected to her fourth one-year term as president of the Faculty Senate, and she will continue to serve on the Board of Trustees during 2012-13.

Manoj Chopra, former chair of the Faculty Senate and a former UCF trustee, has been elected chair of the Advisory Council of Faculty Senates of Florida. In this capacity, he also will serve on the Florida Board of Governors.

President Hitt congratulated the six winners of the Pegasus Professor Award, UCF’s most prestigious faculty honor. They are Sudipta Seal and Donald Malocha of the College of Engineering and Computer Science; Stella Sung and Talat Rahman from the College of Sciences; Stella Sung from the College of Arts and Humanities; and Martin Richardson from the College of Optics and Photonics.

Trustees applauded students from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, who won the top prize of $100,000 in a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Team members Brandon Lojewski, Johan Rodriguez, Cheng Li and Thomas Yang will compete in the National Clean Energy Business Plan Finals in Washington, D.C., in June.

Trustees recognized four Burnett Honors College spring graduates who have received prestigious national scholarships. The graduates are Jennifer Bencivenga, who was chosen for a Fulbright English teaching assistantship in Germany; Ashley Ewh, who won a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship and a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship; Christopher Frye, who earned the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship; and Gabriel Willman, who received the David L. Boren Scholarship for Undergraduate Studies to study in Israel.

President Hitt recognized several UCF teams for their success this spring. The women’s track team won the Conference USA championship; the men’s golf team placed fifth in the NCAA’s Stanford Regional and will compete next week in the national championships; and the softball and women’s golf teams also earned spots in their respective NCAA tournaments. The baseball team finished second in Conference USA and was ranked as high as No. 7 this season.

Family, friends, faculty and others – both in person and in video messages – praised the service and dedication of the president, who led the university to national prominence as enrollment has jumped from 22,000 to more than 58,500 during the past two decades.

Rick Schell, vice president and chief of staff, told the audience that Hitt, the longest-serving president of the 11 state universities, has “the courage of an offensive lineman,” and Matt McCann, Student Government Association president, said Hitt is a “servant leader” who values the input of people around him.

“You were not only tall in stature, but also in vision,” said Roger Pynn, a Distinguished Alumnus Award winner and president of the Curley & Pynn public relations firm. “The community – all of  us – owe you an incredible ‘thank you.’”

Hitt returned the compliments to those in attendance at the packed Pegasus Ballroom of the Student Union.

“If you are fortunate enough to head a large and dynamic organization, people tend to credit you for much of the good that happens,” he said. “And, while such praise can be flattering, allow me to set the record straight. The achievements at UCF that coincide with my tenure have far more to do with you than with anything I could ever do.”

The president added that the steady pursuit of the university’s goals has defined the UCF of today. The greatest catalyst for the school’s success, he said, is the goal “to be America’s leading partnership university.”

Hitt also thanked his wife of 50 years, Martha, for her many contributions to the university and for being his “best adviser and the greatest joy of my life.”

The president left the audience with a key lesson he has come to understand in the years since arriving at UCF on March 1, 1992:

“If there is anything I have learned in 20 years, it is that our greatest danger is not to dream too large, but to dream too small. At UCF, we dream big. Our greatest limitations are those we place on ourselves.”

After the president’s comments, Olga Calvet, vice chair of the Board of Trustees, presented the Hitts with a bouquet of yellow Pegasus roses and framed side-by-side aerial maps of the campus taken in 1992 and 2012.

“You can see the amazing physical growth,” Calvet told them, “and most of all it symbolizes our progress in those 20 years.”

 To leave a congratulatory message to the president, go to  www.ucf.edu/hitt20.

Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday announced the appointments of Richard T. Crotty, Alan S. Florez and John R. Sprouls and the reappointment of Olga Calvet, who is a charter member of the UCF Board of Trustees. All of the appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

The new trustees will serve four- or five-year terms beginning today.

Crotty, 62, is among the first graduates of UCF, then known as Florida Technological ����ֱ��. He served for 14 years in the Florida Legislature, where he was the prime sponsor of a bill creating the first Prepaid College Tuition program in the United States. He also placed in the state budget the original funding for UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training.

Crotty served as Orange County’s chairman and mayor for eight years. He is currently executive vice president for Crossman and Company. He will succeed trustee Joe Mantilla, who has served on the board since April 2010.

Florez will return as a UCF trustee. The 1998 UCF graduate previously served on the board for nearly four years until January 2010. Florez, 34, of Flagler Beach, is the executive vice president of Brown & Brown Insurance. Prior to joining Brown & Brown, Florez served as former Gov. Jeb Bush’s deputy director of Legislative Affairs and special assistant.

Florez will succeed Phyllis Klock, a charter member of the Board of Trustees and a retired president and chief operating officer of CompBenefits Corp. She previously served as graduate program coordinator for UCF’s College of Business Administration. Klock also is a former member of the UCF Foundation Board of Directors.

Sprouls is the executive vice president and chief executive officer of Universal Parks and Resorts. Sprouls, 52, of Windermere, joined Universal Orlando in 1996 as vice president of Human Resources after having spent 15 years in various senior level roles for The Seagram Company. Before that, he was a practicing attorney in New York and New Jersey.

Sprouls will succeed Judy Albertson, a Winter Park art consultant and active supporter of UCF’s arts programs. A charter member of the UCF Board of Trustees, Albertson helped to establish the Friends of UCF for the Flying Horse Press. She also has served on an advisory committee for UCF’s Judaic Studies program since its inception, and she is a member of the UCF Foundation Board.

Calvet, 61, of Orlando is a senior vice president and chief financial officer of Palmas Inc. She received an Accounting degree from UCF in 1971, and she has previously served as a Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission member and as chair of the UCF Foundation.

The other members of the Board of Trustees are Chair Rick Walsh, Vice Chair Tom Yochum, Jim Atchison, Faculty Senate Chair Ida Cook, Ray Gilley, Michael J. Grindstaff, Harris Rosen and Student Body President Michael Kilbride.

More information about the Board of Trustees is available at .