Ferris’ Board of Trustees approved a 1.9 percent dining and housing rate increase in a special session on Dec. 17.
Vice President for Administration and Finance, Jerry Scoby, said the rate is based on operating cost increases that both housing and dining will incur next year.
“The 1.9 percent increase will help cover part of our increases in cost,” said Scoby. “We will look for other ways to generate revenue through additional students living on campus, more individuals taking optional meal plans, or reducing some of our cost.”
Scoby said the university took into consideration the expected number of students with meal plans and housing contracts, as well as Ferris’ current tuition cost.
“While we expect costs to increase to the university by more than 1.9 percent, we felt we needed to keep the rate increase as low as possible to be sensitive to families and the cost of living on campus while attending Ferris,” said Scoby.
Residence hall students will see an annual room and dining rate increase from $8,580 to $8,744 for a standard occupancy room and unlimited meals seven days a week on the bronze and silver plans. Scoby said he believes maintaining the percentage of the rate increase may also raise the number of students living on-campus.
“We are looking for ways to increase the number of students living on campus and hopefully holding the line on the size of the increase will help encourage some students to live on campus that might not otherwise,” said Scoby.
The increase is scheduled to begin for the fall 2011 semester.