UCA students will see a 5.17% increase in their housing and meal plan bills next academic year, following last year’s 4.99% increase.
The Board of Trustees approved the increase at its Feb. 16 meeting.
For a double room and the total access meal plan, students will pay $9,110 — $448 more than they did for the 2023-2024 year.
-
For the 2014-2015 year, room and board cost $5,778, which was a 4.11% increase from the previous year’s $5,550.
Story continues below advertisement -
In 2015-2016, it cost $5,982, a 3.53% increase.
-
In 2016-2017, it cost $6,248, a 4.45% increase.
-
In 2017-2018, it cost $6,518, a 4.32% increase.
-
In 2018-2019, it cost $6,854, a 5.15% increase.
-
In 2019-2020, it cost $7,198, a 5.02% increase.
-
In 2020-2021, it cost $7,554, a 4.95% increase.
-
In 2021-2022, it cost $7,896, a 4.53% increase.
-
In 2022-2023, it cost $8,250, a 4.48% increase.
-
In 2023-2024, it cost $8,662, a 4.99% increase.
-
In 2024-2025, it will cost $9,110, a 5.17% increase.
These increases mean living on campus at UCA in 2024-2025 will be 57.67% more expensive than it was a decade prior in 2014-2015.
Robin Williamson, vice president for student affairs, gave a presentation about the fee increases.
“Our proposal includes a 5% increase for the double-room option. We’ve worked very closely with our partners in Aramark to do a 5.4% increase in the all-access meal plan.
“Now, 5.4% doesn’t cover the cost of operations and increases for our Aramark partners. They’re working with us to improve efficiencies and to make some cuts where they can,” Williamson said.
“Also, for us, 5% doesn’t cover the cost of what we would need to address our $10 million in deferred maintenance on housing, but … this would give us enough to keep our halls at the top level that they are,” she said.
The rate increase policy states, “The increase is primarily related to the continuing effort to maintain and upgrade housing facilities. Recommended repairs to the residence halls and university-owned apartments exceed $10 million. The estimated annual revenue from the proposed increase for the housing room rates is $919,939. The proposed 2024-2025 room rates place UCA near the midpoint of the rates for other Arkansas universities.”
UCA Board of Trustees member Kelley Erstine said, “I did read another institution down the road, I won’t tell you which direction, you can figure out for yourself, reflected in their board meeting yesterday a 9% increase.”
Arkansas Tech University’s Board of Trustees met Feb. 15 and approved a 9% increase for its meal plan rates, according to ATU’s website.
Williamson said, “We work really hard to ensure that we can continue to provide a quality valuable experience for our students, and also our summer camps and conference guests, but we don’t want to do it in a way that is too much for our students and their families.”
The fee increase policy also predicts a 99% housing occupancy rate, the same rate as last year’s.
“While we do know that an increase in room and board can create a hurdle for some of our students, we do hope with this increase we are able to better maintain our residences for the necessary enhancements and upgrades to housing facilities,” Jenny Ruud, staff senate president, said.
SGA President Colby Wilson said, “While acknowledging that discussing increases to room and board continues to present a burden for students, we commend the administration for their diligent efforts in keeping these increases to a minimum and presenting the proposal to the students in a transparent manner. On behalf of the student body, we are grateful that the administration is willing to discuss and consider students’ concerns.”
Faculty Senate President Vaughn Scribner did not comment on the action item to increase room and board.
While all tiers of double rooms saw around a 5% increase, the cost of living in a double room at Greek Village decreased by 7.05%, from $3,190 to $2,965.
Some single-room cost increases varied; rooms at Farris Hall and New Hall increased from $3,400 to $3,750, a 10.29% increase, while the rest of the tiers for single rooms saw 3.55% to 3.92% increases — except for single rooms at Greek Village, which increased 5.09%.
Terri Canino, vice president of finance and administration, also gave an update about finances at UCA.
She said that UCA’s unallocated cash funds were “less than $500,000 below last December, so we’re running exactly how we should. So we’re feeling good about that.”
In December:
-
FY20 reported $27,973,996
-
FY21 reported $31,861,501
-
FY22 reported $31,649,946
-
FY23 reported $25,162,921
-
FY24 reported $24,698,701
Canino said, “We actually built the budget on the enrollment decline of 3.97%. This fall, we were only down 1.17%. … For the spring, we actually increased 0.6%, so we’re feeling really good about attrition.”
The next Board of Trustees meeting will be May 24 in Wingo Hall.