Rebekkah Morrow, president of the Instructional Faculty Association, gave an update on faculty activities during Western Oklahoma State College's Board of Regents regular session Tuesday.

Lisa Greenlee, dean of arts and sciences and chair of the HLC steering committee, gave a report on Higher Learning Commission's visit to Western's campus. As has been previously published, the visiting team is recommending that Western receive10-year reaccreditation. Greenlee said that the HLC will provide two reports to the college shortly. The assurance report is a shorter document which will be posted on Western's website. The advancement report will provide more detailed analysis and recommendations and is typically for administrative use. President Randy Cumby and the Board commended Greenlee for her extensive work in the self-study process.

The Board approved the monthly disbursement report (consent docket) presented by Bruce Wiese, vice president for business affairs.

Wiese then presented a proposal to build a new Student Center between the A and D wings. The Board discussed the need for a new Student Center, as public demand for use of the current facility has steadily increased.

Funding would be made available through currently available resources. The Board gave the go-ahead for the building plan and asked that student input be sought as the project is further developed.

Dr. Randy Smith, vice president for academic affairs, proposed the additio of a new degree: Associate of Applied Science in Production Agriculture.

Smith said that the agriculture advisory board had recommended the new degree, letters of support had been submitted from the community, an surveys from within the community had been conducted. The new degree proposal had been reviewed and approved by the curriculum committee. The Board approved the request, and the request will now be forwarded to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. It is hoped that the degree will be approved by the State Regents by fall 2008.

In the President's Report, Cumby again thanked and congratulated all who worked toward gaining 10-year reaccreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. He reminded everyone that the musical theater department will be staging "Back to the 80's" April 18-20.

Western will host an Open House and Education Fair on Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. Commencement exercises will take place Friday, May 9 at 8 p.m. Western's Regent Dean Graumann of Granite will be the commencement speaker.

The next Board of Regents meeting will be June 10 at 7:30 p.m.

In personnel matters, the Board re-employed the executive administrativ officers, deans, faculty, professional staff, and support staff as presented by President Cumby. The Board also accepted the resignations of Stephen Barnett, Upward Bound academic coordinator, and Zebulon Burks, instructional support technician.