Students may be paying more for room and board and student fees next year if the Board of Trustees approves proposed recommendations at its regular meeting today.

Overall, student fees would increase by 8.97 percent. Student fees are broken down into several categories including activity fees, athletics, bond revenues, Huskie Bus Line, and health insurance, among others. The BOT also will vote on a 23.6 percent increase in student insurance.

“The biggest impact in terms of the student fee increase is the health insurance,” NIU President John Peters said. “That is still a pretty good rate. I am pleased with the process and we had strong support from the finance committee on the fee package.”

Peters said the process of determining student fee increases is very thorough, and that many student groups have been given the opportunity to give input.

“We try to keep the increases on the non-mandatory items under 3 percent,” Peters said. “We pledge that we are going to go through the same process every year with the goal of keeping it as low as possible every year for the students.”

According to the BOT summary in the meeting agenda packet, the average increase, excluding the health insurance increase, for all students is 2.83 percent.

Room rates also face a rate hike, with the average room increasing 8.93 percent. Board rates, money used to pay for dining hall dollars, will remain at their current level.

“I am pleased that our rates have been kept at what they need for us to keep residence hall operations going,” Peters said. “I think if you look, they are really still the lowest in the state on average for public universities in the state.”

The increase in room rates is needed to help maintain the safety and security of the residence halls, Peters said.

The largest increase in room rates will come to students living in a double room. Depending on the residence hall, rates for double rooms will go up anywhere from 8 to 19 percent.

“It seems this is the year for the double occupancy rooms to be looked at,” Peters said. “The singles were receiving attention for a long time because doubles were being turned into single rooms.”

Money from the rate increases will go to pay for bonds from the remodeling of Lincoln and Douglas halls and toward the future remodeling of Grant Hall.

Peters said he walked through Grant Hall during the fall semester and realizes the need for improvements.

“One option is to float a bond, and we are not at that point,” Peters said. “It was at the level of $26 million [for remodeling of Stevenson] and we are still paying on it. We are beginning to attack Grant, but we are not at that point yet.”

Funding for equipment and fixtures for the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center will also be voted on. Funding, not to exceed $649,550, will come from a combination of existing bond revenues and solicited gifts and donations.

The board will also vote on a collective bargaining agreement with 10 organizations representing various employee groups on campus. The agreement would run through June 30, 2009.

The BOT will meet at 9 a.m. today at Altgeld Hall, Room 315.