Residence rates to rise next year

The cost of Bloomington campus housing is going up again.\nConcluding its monthly meeting Friday in the Indiana Memorial Union, the IU board of trustees unanimously approved an average increase of 3.55 percent in the cost of all dorms and on-campus apartments for the next school year.\nMost housing rates will shake out at slightly more than the average increase, and some will be fall below. Forest Co-op, Ashton-Mason and Willkie Quad will feel a 2 percent increase for next year, or roughly a $75 increase. All other dorms will increase 4 percent, roughly a $161 increase.\nThe price of on-campus apartments will rise by 1 percent, but their rates vary building-to-building and an average monetary increase was not calculated.\n"While this board never likes to increase rates, we really did get a proposal that, if we at least have to raise them, there's a damn good reason why," said trustee Patrick Shoulders, chairman of the board's Finance and Audit Committee.\nAccording to a report prepared for the trustees by Vice Chancellor of Auxiliary Services Bruce Jacobs, the cost of IU's room-and-board rates is the third lowest in the Big Ten. Only Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State have rates lower than IU, and among public universities in Indiana, IU's room-and-board rates are lower than both Purdue and Ball State.\nEven with next year's increase, the document says, IU will continue to rank among the three lowest room-and-board rates in the Big Ten.\nThe cost of meal plans will also increase under the measure the trustees approved Friday. But it is the first increase in those plans in four years, prompting Shoulders to quip: "Find something else that hasn't gone up in four years."\nThe weighted average increase for meal plans will be 3.84 percent, which the report says reflects the climbing prices of "compensation, food cost per item and associated supplies and expenses."\nAdditionally, the board heard an argument from Eric Zeemering, the moderator of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization, for providing dental insurance to graduate and professional students on the Bloomington campus.\nZeemering told the board that the GPSO, which serves in an analogous role to graduate student that IUSA serves to undergraduates, has been providing Bloomington graduates with a series of "coffee talks" and workshops to address professional topics, such publishing academic books.\nBut, Zeemering added, IU can do better on its part to help provide dental insurance. IU is currently one of two institutions in the Big Ten that does not have some type of dental plan for their student academic appointees.\n"Imagine yourself as a graduate employee of this University, earning about $10,000 per year, maybe $12,000, facing the bill for a dental cleaning, a root canal and a crown," Zeemering said. "I think you would agree this huge expense would be personally and economically devastating for the student."\nTo stay competitive in the recruitment of high-quality graduate students, just as the University attempts to stay competitive in attracting high-quality faculty, Zeemering said IU must provide "attractive compensation packages."\nIU provides a basic health insurance plan for graduate and professional students, and provides health and dental insurance for faculty. Trustee Shoulders told Zeemering he thought the board should look at a proposal from IU to include dental insurance plans.\n"Don't get your hopes up, we probably can't afford it. But we should at least take a look at the cost," Shoulders said. \nThe trustees also approved the IU Foundation to lease the long-abandoned Beta Theta Pi fraternity house located between the School of Informatics and the Geology School on 10th Street.\nThe four-story, fraternity chapter house will be leased over the next 20 years at an annual rent of $155,362.\nLast month the trustees approved the IU Foundation to lease the Kappa Alpha Psi house on the Jordan Avenue extension. Lynn Coyne, assistant vice president for University real estate and economic development, has said the foundation plans to make the empty fraternities available for student housing, either through a lease to a greek organization or to Residential Programs and Services.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.