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The following are a few of the highlights of the Oct. 21 Board of Regents meeting:

Student enrollment information released

The UW Office of Planning and Budgeting released the total head count of fall 2010 students, showing that there are 42,935 state-funded students at all campuses, 32,518 of them undergraduates and the remaining 10,417 graduate and professional students. There are an additional 7,005 students who are not state funded, making the total enrollment 49,940 students. Associate Vice Provost of the office Gary Quarfoth said the figure is “probably close” to the highest enrollment in the UW’s history.

Discussion on non-resident graduate tuition waiver reappears

GPSS President Sarah Reyneveld and several students benefiting from the out-of-state tuition waiver program made their case in front of the Board of Regents in order to try to save the program that is currently in jeopardy of being cut by the UW Board of Deans. Reyneveld called the program “one of the most successful recruiting tools that we have” and also argued that many of the waivers go to underprivileged students.

UW medical student Robert Jones said he believes the waiver represents a commitment by the university to support its students.

“The waiver demonstrates and backs up that commitment on paper,” Jones said to the board. “It says that we are willing to reach out and create a system where we can get people from these applicant pools … and we’ll support them.”

Despite it being an informational session, UW Regent Craig Cole repeated the point that “decisions have consequences” and that, although he isn’t fond of the potential repeal, he believes it is a “decision that is necessary” given the financial state of the university.

HFS updates

With occupancy for autumn quarter 2010 for HFS residence halls at 114.8 percent of the designed capacity, Jon Lebo, interim director of student life projects at the Capital Projects Office, told the board that the first two new projects, Cedar Apartments and Poplar Hall, are under construction and on schedule for occupancy next fall. The other two, Elm and Alder Halls, are anticipated to be completed a year later.

At the beginning of the quarter, 106 students were in temporary housing and 52 remain in such spaces. Lebo said that “about 25” students are still waiting to get housing. HFS hopes that the new facilities will not only provide greater room for future classes, but will also attract more students to return to the residence halls as they add new styles of housing, such as studios, apartment-style living and private bathrooms.

Roll Call: Obama visit conflicts with meeting

The Obama visit didn’t disrupt the board meeting much, but there were some collisions. Board Chair Herb Simon and Interim-President Phyllis Wise welcomed the president to the UW at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, so they missed part of the meeting. ASUW President Madeleine McKenna was also absent for the majority of the meeting because she also spoke at the rally.

Regent Stanley Barer was absent from the meeting.

The next Board of Regents meeting will take place on Nov. 18 in room CSE 691 of the Allen Center and will begin at 2 p.m. The room change was made to put the regents closer to Husky Stadium because later that evening, the Huskies will play the UCLA Bruins on national television.

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