The Resident Life and Residential Facilities departments are seeking to raise room fees about 4 percent for the 2016-17 academic year, according to the fee proposal presented to the Resident Hall Association Senate on Tuesday.
The change, which is contingent on approval by the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents later this year, would increase the price for a double in a traditional air-conditioned hall by $266.
“The state determines what kind of pay increases will happen,” said Deborah Grandner, Resident Life director. “They will make that determination and inform the system as to what those increases will be.”
While housing rates vary depending on the number of roommates and the resident hall, Grandner said most on-campus residents should expect fee hikes of a similar size.
The fee increase is expected to cover $2,534,518 in additional expenses the departments have budgeted for in the next fiscal year. Apart from a 2 percent rate increase to provide funding for the Resident Life Student Housing Strategic Plan, the bulk of the new expenses are from employee salaries and wage and benefits adjustments, which are largely out of the departments’ control, Grandner said.
In total, the departments are budgeting for $803,362 in salary and wage adjustments, $581,988 in employee benefit increases, $7,075 for tort and liability insurance increases and $110,418 for property insurance increases, according to the proposal.
“I believe the bulk of [the increase] has to do with the number of claims that are made,” Grandner said. “I do know that [the increase] is influenced by Prince Fredrick, by Oakland, being new buildings, and the cost of replacement will be higher for those buildings.”
Not all expenses are going up, however. The departments are cutting $66,424 from their utilities and facilities management maintenance budget next year, thanks in large part to a $167,420 decrease in budgeted water consumption.
“There are some facilities elements of that, that if we use products that enable sustainability, that will help to keep costs down,” Grandner said. “There’s also a part of it that has to do with the fact that we now have a student culture that is sustainable.”
Residential Facilities also struck a deal with Comcast in late August regarding the university’s cable contract. A one-year contract extension will decrease the annual cable rate to around $128 per community access television outlet, from about $145, and will save the school $39,497 next year.
Despite the lower price, Residential Facilities Director John Dooley said, Comcast proposed adding high-definition service when negotiating the contract extension — a conversion that wrapped up last week.
To keep the fee increase under 4 percent, the departments are also budgeting for $267,466 in savings that will come from reduction in labor, operating expenses and overhead.
“It will be an ongoing discussion over the course of the next few months as to how we’ll reduce those costs,” Grandner said. “We’ll take advantage of opportunities where we can. We’ll look for efficiencies, we’ll hold some positions open.”
The RHA senate will review the proposal — along with fee proposals from the Department of Transportation Services and the Department of Dining Services — this week in committee meetings and will vote on a resolution to support it in its next meeting on Feb. 16.
