Students who receive housing through Western next year will pay more.

Room and board rates will increase 4.25 percent starting this fall for students living in residence halls, Birnam Wood and off-campus leased apartments.

This means, for example, it will cost $38 more per month to live in a standard double room in a residence hall and have a 125 meal plan.

The increase is meant to make up for about $1.3 million in costs to the Housing and Dining System, most of which comes from having to pay off the addition to Buchanan Towers.

The payments on the Buchanan Towers addition add about $905,000 to Western’s debt.

Housing and Dining know how much these payments are expected to be each year when they buy the bonds, Associate Director of University Residences Kurt Willis said, so the increased debt was not a surprise.

“We knew this was coming,” Willis said.

The other major thing that prompted the rate increase was that Western is taxing its self-sustaining departments, such as Housing and Dining, the Associated Student Bookstore and the Wade King Student Recreation Center, more.

For Housing and Dining, this tax jumped by about $388,000 from this year to next.

Housing and Dining balanced its budget using higher room and board rates.

“We don’t have a choice. You’ve got to pay that debt service increase and you’ve got to pay the tax the institution says they want,” Willis said. “We’re a part of the campus, so we pay it.”

University residences is expecting about 40 more students to live in the residence halls this fall compared to last fall, Willis said. This slightly increased head count, plus the higher room and board rates for all students in the system, should cover the $1.3 million left in costs.

In years past, housing rates have increased by as much as 7 percent in a single year. The average rate increase has been 5 percent per year over the last few years.

Housing and Dining also plans to increase wages and benefits for its employees by about $72,000 next year.

The money for this will come from a variety of sources, Willis said, including increased fees to use Lakewood or space in the Viking Union and increased revenues from conferences held on Western’s campus.

There won’t be major new programs, he said, but renovations, new sprinkler systems and furniture replacements will go on as usual and there will still be the same number of resident advisers and front desk hours in the residence halls.

Food service will even expand a little, with dining halls open half an hour longer for dinner Monday through Thursday.

Willis said he thinks the Housing and Dining System has balanced its budget well for the upcoming year despite the challenges of the economy, bond debt and increasing taxes.

“I think the system’s doing pretty good at not cannibalizing a whole lot to make it work,” Willis said. “As with every department on campus, it’s been a tough go.”

Possible energy fee increase

Also, Western’s Renewable Energy Fee will be put to a vote in the Spring AS election. A “yes” vote would renew the fee, change its name to the Green Energy Fee, lower the maximum amount students can be charged and broaden the scope of what could be purchased with the money.

Western uses money from the $4-per-quarter fee to buy Renewable Energy Certificates, which represent 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each (about how much energy it takes to leave a 100-watt light bulb on for 10 hours). These certificates offset 100 percent of Western’s electricity consumption.

The fee was first approved in spring 2004 under the premise that it would never be more than $19 per quarter, said Ron Bailey of Facilities Management Wednesday night in a presentation to the AS Board. The renewed fee on this spring’s ballot would be capped at $9.

The Renewable Energy Committee, made up of students and chaired by AS Vice President for Student Life Mike Pond, oversees how the money is spent. If the updated fee is approved, this committee will figure out the specific amount the fee will be for next year and report to the AS Board.

Western is the only school in Washington with a mandatory student fee that goes exclusively toward purchasing renewable energy produced off-campus. The Evergreen State College has a fee similar to the proposed Green Energy Fee that purchases renewable energy as well as funding energy conservation projects on campus.

Share this article:
                                   

Be first to comment on this article

Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.