Student Senate members endorsed increasing the cost of room and board rates next semester by as much as $250 Wednesday.

In approving the rates by an 18-5-3 vote, senate members also recommended the retention of the residence hall newspaper plan. However, the senate decided not to recommend the installation on paper towel dispensers or hand dryers in residence hall bathrooms.

Vice President for Student Affairs Lou Hencken said the increase was a necessity.

“We believe that every dime for the increase is needed,” Hencken said.

Senate members agreed.

“If we want to have new things and nice things and a warm place to stay, it doesn’t come free,” said Tommy Brewer, vice president for financial affairs.

The rates approved by the senate Wednesday were revised from a proposal prepared by the Bond Revenue Committee last month. Although the revised rates are as much as $40 lower than the rates proposed by the Bond Revenue Committee, the original plan called for increases in dining dollars allotted for meal plans. The rates endorsed by the senate would maintain current levels of dining dollars.

Hencken said the new rates were an improvement over the original plan, which the senate decided to delay endorsing last month for lack of information.

“I think these rates approved today are better, fairer for the students than were proposed earlier,” Hencken said.

Student Body President Katie Cox called the vote on the rate increase “a huge victory on the part of students.”

“We’ve gotten (the rates) lowered,” Cox said.

Not all senate members were as supportive of the proposal.

“When will it stop?,” asked senate member Yve Williams, who noted that housing rates went up around $160 last year.

“This is not 3 percent inflation – this is hundreds of dollars a year,” Williams said, who later voted against the rate proposal.

Williams said that students on financial aid would be particularly affected by the increase, referring to comments made earlier to the senate by Maisha Gilbert, a senior health studies major.

“It’s hard enough to pay what I already pay,” said Gilbert, a financial aid recipient.

Senate members also voted to retain the newspaper program after students gave a “big fat yes” to the idea.

However, senate members said most people they talked to about the paper towel program were against the plan.

Weyhaupt said the recommendation will now go to the Board of Trustees, who will vote on the rates during their meeting Friday.

“I don’t think anybody knows for sure what the board is going to do,” said senate member Steve Poettker.

In other business, senate members tabled a bylaw change preventing Student Government funds from going to third parties, and approved Zeta Alpha Omicron as a Recognized Student Organization.