Board of Trustees UA Institutional Meeting - November 5, 2026

The UA System Board of Trustees’ Finance Committee and Physical Properties Committee met on November 5, 2026. The Finance Committee approved the system’s FY 2027–28 state operating appropriation request, which seeks a 10% increase over the current base, and its capital-improvements appropriation request. It also approved a five-year investment-advisory agreement with Creative Planning Institutional Advisors LLC following an RFP with five proposals, citing service continuity and the lowest available fees. Other approved agreements included hospitalist services involving DCH Healthcare Authority and InCompass Health, UAB’s Watermark Insights agreement, an amendment to its steam-service agreement with the Birmingham VA Medical Center, and a UAB agreement for RO Diagnostics test kits and reagents. The committee also approved a UAH installment-payment agreement with Hewlett Packard Financial Services for a network-switch refresh and other university items; several transcript passages omit or garble details.

The Physical Properties Committee approved the listed project, real-estate, and lease resolutions. Major projects included the Rise Center playscape, whose budget fell from $3 million to just over $2.4 million after favorable bids, with Harrison Construction the low bidder for package C; the $88 million South Campus Student Recreation Center, advancing design selection and negotiations with Davis Architects/HDR; and UAB’s $77.2 million student-services and administration building and dining-facility renovation, whose budget rose from $6 million to $9.5 million. Approved planning also covered a UAB hospital kitchen modernization budgeted at $35.41 million and a $2.4 million rheumatology-clinic expansion. Real-estate actions included authorization to negotiate a $1.9 million purchase of 1340 University Boulevard, a lease with Smarter Location LLC, and related easements for a pedestrian bridge connecting the College of Nursing and DCH Hospital. Votes were taken on the resolutions in groups, and the resolutions were approved; other notable funding included a $660,000 FEMA grant for the UAB security-operations-center project and $7.5 million from UAB’s commercial-paper program for the dining project.