The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees approved naming the School of Communication building in honor of the program's top donors at its regular meeting Thursday.

Pending the Legislature's approval, the building that houses the Nicholson School of Communication will bear the same name in honor of Tony and Sonja Nicholson, who have donated $2,000,001 to support the school. The Nicholsons' gift, which is eligible for a dollar-for-dollar state match, will help fund faculty and student programming and recruiting.

The Nicholsons gave another $2 million to help build the Anthony and Sonja Nicholson Fieldhouse, the covered football practice facility in the university's athletics complex.

The trustees also approved increasing rental rates for on-campus housing by an average of 4 percent for 2006-07. For example, the rent for a double-occupancy room in the Libra Community will increase from $2,150 a semester to $2,240.

Rental revenues cover the costs to operate Housing and Residence Life, including salaries, debt service on facilities, utilities and maintenance. The increase will help pay for rising operating costs, additional staff and repairs and renovations.

During an update on fund-raising, Vice President for Development Bob Holmes told trustees the university has raised $34.2 million for the proposed medical college. Combined with a $10 million donation for the Burnett biomedical sciences building and eligible state matching funds, UCF's biomedical fund-raising efforts total $95.1 million.

The university has raised about $4.5 million in private donations for the planned on-campus football stadium and is negotiating naming rights. In addition, the university has leased all of the stadium's suites and club seats for a total of about $8.3 million. Construction of the stadium is expected to be completed by fall 2007.

Including fund-raising for the stadium but not the medical college, the university has raised about $224 million toward its $250 million comprehensive campaign, which concludes June 30. The fund-raising for the medical college will be included in the campaign if the state Board of Governors approves the proposal in March.

Provost Terry Hickey also announced the separation of the departments of Sociology and Anthropology and the renaming of the Department of Communicative Disorders to the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

The Board of Trustees' next meeting is scheduled for March 16 in the Student Union. More information about the board is available at http://bot.ucf.edu.