Senate takes a closer look at conflicting housing rate figures

The Housing Office and the Student Senate are still working to clarify information about a proposed increase in room and board rates for next year, said Bill Schnackel, Director of Housing and Dining Services.

The rate increase proposal, part of a housing budget proposal prepared by the Bond Revenue Committee, would raise the cost of living in residence halls by 3 percent and meal plans by as much as 16 percent, beginning this fall.

Last month, Schnackel and Vice President for Student Affairs Lou Hencken agreed to postpone submitting the proposed rate hike to the Board of Trustees until the senate had time to review the proposal.

However, last week the senate’s Tuition and Fee Review committee postponed a forum on the proposed rate increase because they were unable to obtain accurate information about the proposed increase, said Adam Weyhaupt, speaker of the senate.

Director of Housing and Dining Services Bill Schnackel said that the delay was because of a misunderstanding between him and the Tuition and Fee Review Committee about some of the statistics and figures in the proposal.

Specifically, the committee is concerned that many of the figures in the proposal don’t match up, said committee chair Jen Fanthorpe.

“It seemed that the costs (in the proposal) were divided by different numbers of students,” Fanthorpe said. “We want to know how much each part will cost.”

“We have differing ideas on how the numbers add up,” Schnackel said.

Fanthorpe said Schnackel will resubmit the housing rate proposal to the committee later this week in way that is easier for committee members to understand.

“This budget proposal is very complicated to understand,” Schnackel said. “It’s very difficult to understand (this proposal) in brief meetings.”

“The students calling the forum need to be comfortable with the information,” Schnackel said.

Fanthorpe said the committee will try to reschedule the forum for sometime in the next two weeks.