Marshall University Board of Governors met at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, in the Shawkey room of the Memorial Student Center.

Marshall brought in outside sources from CliftonLarsonAllen LLC to complete the audit for the 2017-2018 year.

“Our opinion on the financial statement of Marshall University is unmodified,” principal Bill McClain of CliftonLarsonAllen LLC said. “That means it is the high level of assurance that we can give. We are making no modification, so the financial statement you gave us.”

CLA also discovered zero material weaknesses in the budget, only one adjustment was made, which speaks highly of the financial department McClain said, the composite financial index improved 10 percent from last year and Marshall University is ranked number one in the West Virginia class.

Katrina Eskins, budget director in the University Budget Office gave a presentation on the development process for the budget.

“We will work with the institutional office and their enrollment model,” Eskins said.

The development process includes; projection of available sources, meeting with budget units, identification of increasing fund money funding priorities, draft operating budget with source scenarios, budget work group, allocations to vice presidents, worksheets to budget office and proposed operation modified cash audit basis budget budgets to Board of Governors.

David Haden, Charleston representative for the Board of Governors gave financial reports.

The Islamic Association purchased a piece of property measuring 1.627 acres on South Charleston’s campus for $44,900.

Brandi Jacobs-Jones, Senior Vice President of Operations gave a report about the new bikes on Marshall’s campus.

“Last week we kicked off the Rolling Thunder Bike Share program,” Jacobs-Jones said.

The Bike Share program began on Friday, Oct. 19. From Friday, Oct. 19 to Tuesday, Oct. 23 the program had 289 members sign up, made 555 trips, biked 702 miles, burned 28,061 calories and 618 pounds of carbon reduced.

“We’ve been approached by local organizations and agencies in the area about expanding the program,” Jacobs-Jones said. “We are looking at placing at Pullman Plaza.”

Cedric Gathings, vice president of Student Affairs, gave a report about the Student Affairs office.

“There are a lot of great things going on in Student Affairs and I am excited to talk about them,” Gathings said. “As of Wednesday, Oct. 24, 100 people had already participated in early voting. We had a total of 300 people last year.”

President Gilbert gave his report on updates for Huntington including many additions that will take place in the near future. Gilbert announced that the Lewis College of Business will be getting a new building on 4th Ave. A survey about the possibility of an aviation program at Marshall is out and waiting to be completed for further review. A committee has been put together to judge art from three different artists for a statue of the late Hal Greer with the drawings set to be revealed on Jan. 12, 2019, at the opener game for the conference season.

Gretchen Kalar can be contacted at [email protected].