ECU Trustees elect officers and meet Brazilian hoops team

Robert A. Ward of Greensboro was elected to a second one-year term as chairman of the East Carolina University Board of Trustees at the July 11 meeting that included a luncheon with the Olympic basketball team from Brazil.

Ward is the executive vice president of Unifi, Inc.

Other officers elected at the meeting were H.E. (Gene) Rayfield of Chapel Hill, vice chairman; and Phillip R. Dixon of Greenville, secretary. Rayfield is the head of Rayfield Investment Company of Chapel Hill and Dixon is an attorney.

In the meeting, the trustees heard reports from ECU administrators about plans to relieve campus parking congestion and about posting of grades on the Internet.

Layton Getsinger, associate vice chancellor for business affairs, told the board that the construction of a parking deck on campus could cost more than $9,000 a space and could raise parking fees by $80 a year. Students, faculty and staff currently pay $96 in parking fees.

The the less costly administration’s plan, ECU expects to add an additional 2,000 spaces of surface parking in an area currently used for intramural fields near Dowdy Ficklen Stadium. New intramural fields will be constructed on donated property near the Belk Allied Health Building.

University Attorney Ben Irons that ECU has issued a directive to faculty about posting student grades on the Internet using social security numbers.

“The Internet is different from posting grades on walls outside of classrooms,” he said. “The Internet goes all over the world and we have serious concerns about using it to post grades with social security numbers.”

Following the morning session of the meeting, the Board attended a luncheon where they were introduced to members of the Brazilian men’s basketball team. The team is practicing at ECU in preparation for the Olympic games in Atlanta later this month.

“We’re delighted to see so many tall players on our campus,” Chancellor Eakin said. “And we wish some of them were ours.”