The Penn State Board of Trustees unanimously approved a number of resolutions Friday, including a proposed $3.4 million, 4.64-acre acquisition of O.W. Houts property at the intersection of West College Avenue and North Buckhout Street.

The property will extend West Campus into the area west of Buckhout Street, north and south of College Avenue. Another piece of the property, currently occupied by Minit Mart, 913 W. College Ave., will be purchased along with the Houts property for an additional $1 million.

Gary Schultz, Penn State senior vice president for finance and business and university treasurer, told the board the long-term plan is to demolish the buildings on the property.

"We will address the use of the Houts property like we do all the rest of our property, through a master planning process," Schultz said in an interview afterward. "We'll decide how it fits in with the rest of West Campus. We haven't identified the exact use of it."

The board also approved an interim maintenance and operating budget of $3,425,188,000, but the budget is subject to change until the 2008-09 state appropriation is known. The final budget will be approved at July's Board of Trustees meeting.

The board also said farewell to student trustee Galen Foulke, who served his last meeting as a board member Friday. In his farewell address, Foulke (graduate-premedicine) commended his fellow trustees for following through on Penn State's promise to be a student-centered university.

"I can definitely say that this is, in fact, as we claim, a student-centered university," Foulke said. "But I would like to caution you: Don't take my words the wrong way. While I am very proud of that fact, in no way can we afford to relax in that responsibility, and I will always encourage you to work harder in making sure that we are student-centered."

The board welcomed Foulke's replacement, new student trustee Rodney Hughes (graduate-economics).

The board also unanimously approved Penn State's new vice president for Student Affairs, Damon Sims. Sims, currently Indiana University's associate vice provost for Student Affairs, will begin serving his new post on August 1.

The meeting opened with an address by Penn State President Graham Spanier. Spanier went off his script to address student activists from United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), who stood outside the Nittany Lion Inn boardroom and handed out letters describing the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP). Spanier said the DSP -- an anti-sweatshop labor program -- was withdrawn from the United States Department of Justice because it would not pass anti-trust considerations.

In his address, Spanier showcased Penn State's recent appearances in the public eye, mentioning visits by presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and airing a clip from a Penn State taping of CNBC's "Mad Money with Jim Cramer."