MUNCIE, Ind. - Ball State University students will pay $30 more a month to live on campus next school year.

The Ball State Board of Trustees approved increasing room and board rates as well as assessing a technology fee for all residence hall students during a meeting Jan. 26.

The annual cost for a conventional double occupancy room and board plan will be $5,100 in 2001-2002, up from $4,830 this year.

“On the basis of cost comparisons, Ball State will continue to have room and board rates that are competitive with other universities in the region,” said Thomas J. Kinghorn, vice president for business affairs.

The university’s residence halls and dining services operate as self-supporting activities, and rates are established in order that operating costs and renewal and replacement costs are financed by room and board charges, Kinghorn said.

The new rates are necessary to cover anticipated increases in upcoming renovation projects, inflation for food and supplies, repair and maintenance of facilities, and salary and employee benefits, he said.

Residence hall space is provided for 6,100 students with special accommodations for graduate and physically disabled students, with eight wellness halls, and 580 apartment units for families, upperclassmen and graduate students.

The board also reviewed the new technology fee of $50 per semester to be assessed to each student living in the residence halls in 2001-2002. The fee will fund costs for installation and maintenance of infrastructure systems, equipment and telephone lines required to support Internet technology accessible in all residence hall rooms and computer labs.

“The cost of providing the type of access and hardware the students want is very expensive, as many universities have discovered,” said Douglas McConkey, vice president for student affairs. “To keep up with technology, we need to have the fee to be able to maintain the type of computer access that residence hall students want in their rooms as well as keeping the computer labs up to date as much as possible.”

In other business, the board also approved the awarding of an honorary doctor of laws degrees to John E. Worthen, president emeritus, and Faye J. Crosby, a social justice scholar, at spring commencement in May.

Worthen will be honored for his leadership while serving as Ball State’s president from 1984-2000. Crosby, a psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, will be recognized for her contributions to the field of social justice.

The board also granted a right-of-way to Delaware County for a new road and reconstruction of an existing road on the south side of the university-owned Heath Farm property in northwest Muncie. The project is to improve traffic flow through the northern section of the community.

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Kinghorn at (765) 285-1033. McConkey may be reached at (765) 285-1444.)