The Board of Regents approved the location of a new parking garage near the law and architecture schools. | Courtesy of UH Media Relations
In a big day for women in higher education, parking and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the University of Houston System Board of Regents approved several proposals at Thursday’s meeting.
Actions approved by the regents included the site of a new parking garage, the offering of a master’s in statistics and data analytics and the renaming of the College of Business at University of Houston-Downtown. The regents also approved the student fee for Fiscal Year 2018.
UHD will be the home of the first business school in Texas to have a female namesake, thanks to a $10-million donation from Marilyn Davies, the CEO of Bailey Banks Seismic. This donation marks the largest gift in the history of UHD, and the College of Business will be renamed the Marilyn Davies College of Business.
“Now, the job is up to you guys. You’ve got a lot of money, and you’ve got to make it work,” Davies said, urging the regents and president of UHD to make the most of her donation.
According to the presentation, the new parking garage — tentatively called parking garage five — will be located near the law and architecture schools and will house a total of 2,500 spaces. A total of 750 parking spaces will be lost during construction, but there will be a net increase of 1,750 by the time it is finished.
“We are doing everything we can to control demand and make parking as affordable as we can,” said Jim McShan, senior vice chancellor for administration and finance. “The bottom line is, every time we build a building, we lose parking places. We’ve increased about 10,000 students in the last seven or eight years.”
McShan said the addition of the new parking garage will help Parking and Transportation Services keep up with the University’s increasing enrollment and number of students wanting to park on campus.
“We’re keeping up. We’re not falling backwards with it. We’re not by no means way ahead,” said Tilman Fertitta, chairman of the UH System Board of Regents.
According to a parking preview released last year, the new parking garage is scheduled to open for the fall 2018 semester.
Approval was also granted for a new master of science in statistics and data analytics program at the College of Natural Science and Mathematics at UH main campus. While other Texas schools already have a data analytics degree, the UH program promises to be a much lower price. The degree plan will consist of 30 hybrid credits to be completed in 12 months.
The Finance and Administration Committee presented updated plans for the 2018 Fiscal Year student fees. According to a presentation given by chair of the committee, Spencer Armour III, the Student Service Fees will be set at $255 per semester, which is consistent with last year.
