The WSU Board of Regents met in Everett Friday to discuss future plans, including raising student health fees for summer and fall semesters.

The WSU Board of Regents agreed to a $36 per semester and $2 per summer semester increase in undergraduate students’ health fees to pay back an initial loan for the $6.9 million Washington Building renovation, which houses the Health and Wellness Center, according to an action item summary.

The fee increases will generate about $1.1 million per year to meet the debt payment estimated to be less than $800,000, according to the summary.

Counseling and Testing Services will be relocated to the third floor of the Washington Building from the Lighty Student Services building. This space has not been used since the hospital moved out of the building several years ago, said Dr. Bruce Wright, director of Counseling and Testing Services and Health and Wellness Services.

“It contains their old surgery suites and physical therapy suite, among other uses. It thus requires extensive remodeling to convert it into useable space for Counseling Services,” Wright said.

From a delivery standpoint, the main advantage of renovating this space is to put all campus health services for students under the same roof, to enable “one stop health care shopping,” regardless of where they initially present, Wright said.

“This will give us the opportunity, for example, to connect someone with depression who presents to the counseling center first immediately with a primary care provider who can prescribe medication if needed, eliminating delays in needed care,” Wright said

The university is targeting a fall 2015 completion date for the renovation.

Connie Niva, chair of the board, said, “(The renovation) will provide students with better access to health services in one location.”

The Regents also discussed the upcoming WSU North Puget Sound campus in Everett. The board plans to appoint an interim chancellor within the next 15 days to facilitate the integration of the campus into WSU.

When WSU assumes responsibility, the university will add three new programs; electrical engineering, communications and hospitality.

At the meeting, members of the Board of Regents also narrowed down a pool of 12 candidates for the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus/a Award for 2014, chaired by professor Kay Brothers in the college of veterinary medicine.

“Together, we collectively recommended two candidates for this award and will be announcing the recipient to the public in the near future,” said student regent, Lindsey Schaffer.

The regents also discussed a future Global Campus master’s program in electrical engineering from the Global Campus.

By including this program in the Global Campus, WSU will be able to offer non-traditional students working in engineering-related fields the ability to access a graduate degree from a highly ranked online university.

The Board of Regents will meet again in Pullman in May.