Executive Director Jonathan Bey said at yesterday’s director’s meeting he wants key members of Undergraduate Student Government to meet with administrators to help with $200 million worth of necessary classroom improvements.

Bey said Provost Robert Frank and David Creamer, former senior vice president for administration, asked USG last year about deferred maintenance costs.

“That’s maintenance that needs to be done and just simply can’t be paid for at this point,” Bey said, explaining that most classroom maintenance relies primarily on state funding.

Frank and Creamer also sought senators’ opinions about an additional student fee for classroom renovations.

Because of the state’s tuition freeze, the university cannot charge the fee until the end of this school year, Bey said.

Bey said the problem is not exclusive to Kent State. He said he remembered Gregg Floyd, the current vice president for finance and administration, mentioning similar issues at Indiana State during his interviews with the search committee.

Floyd said Indiana State worked with its student government to secure more funding for classrooms.

Bey said he plans to ask Floyd and Frank to speak at a full USG meeting to give members an update on “where everything stands.”

“I’m not really sure what they have in the works or what their thoughts are at this point because, honestly, the provost was brand new at the time and, obviously, Mr. Floyd has been on the job for about two weeks,” Bey said.

Bey asked Andrew Fontanarosa, senator for off-campus and commuter students, and Neal Konesky, senator for the College of Technology, to research how other universities have funded classroom updates.

Contact student politics reporter Nicole Stempak at [email protected].