DeKALB | Students will soon be spending more next year with student fees and room and board officially set to increase for the 2007-2008 school year.

The NIU Board of Trustees voted Thursday to approve increases in student fees and room and board.

Students’ fees are set to increase on average around 5.5 percent and students taking 12 credits or more will have to pay an extra $58.88 next semester.

To reach student fee recommendations, NIU President John Peters said several committees evaluate student fees to see if they cover the appropriate needs of the students. Then groups of students and staff work together on the setting a recommendation and then it comes to Peters for approval. He also assured the board that administrators try to keep fees at a minimum.

“We don’t have to dig very deep into conversations with students or faculty or staff to sense the sense of the heighten expectations and no small frustration about our other infrastructure and building needs,” Peters said.

He also commented on the condition of some of the aging buildings and damage due to DeKalb’s climate and how the state has been unable to help with funding.

Andrew E. Nelms, the student trustee, agreed with that this increase was necessary.

“Given the option of paying more or less, students will obviously prefer to pay less but at the same time, as students we demand certain services: the bus line, the recreation center, adequate facilities, the student center, the Convocation Center and all that,” Nelms said. “There are costs associated with all of those and they produce fees and so that’s how we got to today.”

The room and board rates are set to increase around 13.3 percent. The increases for rooms range from $275 to $384, depending on the room type and residence hall.

Peters said the room cost increase will help fund new sprinklers and also supplement increased cost of paying staff with the recently mandated state minimum wage increase.