The Board of Trustees approved a 3.7 percent tuition increase Friday for 2012-2013 incoming students, which is the lowest increase in 11 years.

The board also approved an expenditure request for $367,340 and named three campus rooms after individuals who had a positive effect on Eastern.

The tuition rate increased by $10 per semester credit hour from $269 to $279, and last year the tuition rate raised 5.9 percent from $254 to $269.

President Bill Perry said the tuition increase will be locked in for students for at least four years because some programs such as teacher certification require more semesters for graduation.

Perry said the university consults different tuition trends such as from the Consumer Price Index, a data engine that stems from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, when deciding tuition increases.

The average tuition increase over the last four years is 7.4 percent, according to the CPI-Urban Midwest.

“The trend line gives us a sense of what pressures parents and students have been under financially,” Perry said. “We also look at what we expect state funding to be and what the enrollment numbers are.”

Perry said affordability is a key concern of the administration with recruiting and retaining students, and the low tuition increase and the room and board increase of 3.25 percent that was approved by the board at its Jan. 20 meeting reflect that.

“The (room and board) increase was the lowest in 20 years, so it is a one-two punch for affordability,” Perry said.

The board also approved an expenditure request of $367,340 for a digital nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer for the chemistry department.

William Weber, the vice president for business affairs, said this device will replace the spectrometer that was vandalized during Thanksgiving Break.

Weber also said the device is required for the department’s accreditation process.

Eastern will purchase the item from Bruker Biospin based in Billerica, Mass., in order to save about $180,000 because two probes used with the device, each worth $89,850, were not damaged during the vandalism and would be compatible with the device purchased from Bruker Biospin.

The device will be funded by insurance along with appropriated and local funds, Weber said.

The board also approved three items of naming university property.

Room 1309 in Klehm Hall, which is the electron microscope lab used by the School of Technology, was named after alumnus Robert DeBolt, who earned a bachelor’s in technology education.

Room 3104 in Klehm Hall, which is a classroom used by the School of Technology, was named after alumnus Mark Rogstad, who received a bachelor’s and a master’s in technology education.

Both DeBolt and Rogstad made contributions to the EI&U Expect Greatness Campaign for the purpose of the School of Technology Future Fund.

The last item of university property was Room 1842 in Buzzard Hall, which is a journalism computer lab.

The lab was named after Diana Peckham, who directed high school yearbook workshops at Eastern and was a founding board member of the Illinois Journalism Education Association.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].