Regents increase Housing costs

Students planning to live on campus next fall can expect a 2.3 percent increase in University room and board costs.

The change, which the University Board of Regents approved at its monthly meeting yesterday, will increase the room and board costs for a double room in a traditional residence hall like West Quad Residence Hall from $5,488 to $6,674 per year - a $150 difference.

After little discussion on the Housing increase, the regents moved on to other issues.

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R-Ann Arbor) asked about the status of a Housing proposal to consolidate dining areas for the Hill area residence halls.

The project is part of the Master Plan, President Bollinger's initiative to physically unify different areas of the University's campus.

The project would be located near Palmer Field, between Alice Lloyd and Mosher-Jordan residence halls, consolidating dining halls at those halls as well as those at Couzens, Mary Markley and Stockwell residence halls. The University is "one of the few universities where every residence hall has its own dining hall," Newman said.

Bollinger told the regents that the Dining Center is not being pursued at the moment because of other University business."I've put it on hold. I'm not prepared to authorize it," Bollinger said.

Cantor said the implications of the consolidated dining hall must be weighed against the set-up of living-learning communities housed in Hill area residence halls like Markley and Alice Lloyd. "Our biggest concern is in the aim of living-learning communities is to create a sense of neighborhood," Cantor said. "How is that affected by a consolidated dining hall?" she asked.

Cantor said the living-learning communities are designed to give incoming students a chance to be part of a small neighborhood within the scope of the larger University community.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Kasdin said there are some financial benefits to the project, but "those savings could evaporate in the first cost overrun."

Hartford said the kitchens in the Hill area are some of the oldest unrenovated ones on campus.

In addition to discussion about Housing-specific issues, the board approved all proposals set before it yesterday.

Bollinger said recent attention focused on projected football ticket cost increases for next season has prompted him to ask for more formal discussions on the subject. Bollinger asked Kasdin to chair a committee to advise him "on the structure of financial management and long-term planning for the Athletic Department."

During her monthly report, Provost Nancy Cantor told the regents about the University's intent to recruit and retain a "first-rate" faculty.

"This is a place where people have stayed and this is a place where people have come," Cantor said.

She said salaries and wage increases are important factors to recruit faculty and keep them at the University, adding that wage increases will be greater than the rate of inflation this year.

Later, Regent Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann Arbor) expressed her gratitude to Vice President for Medical Affairs Gilbert Omenn and the team at the University Hospitals' Burn Treatment Unit for quickly treating victims of the explosion at Ford Motor Company's Rouge complex in Dearborn on Feb. 1.

The regents also approved multiple building and improvement projects including an upgrade for electrical and fire alarms system at South Quad Residence Hall. The project is estimated to cost $4.6 million, financed from University Housing, Kasdin said, adding that the project is scheduled to begin this summer and conclude during the summer of 2000.

The regents also approved $950,000 worth of renovations for the second floor of the E.H. Kraus Building, more commonly known as the national science building. The project is intended to provide reconfigured space for a open molecular cell biology research laboratory.

Other building projects approved by the regents include repairs to North Campus roads and a magnetic resonance imaging facility addition to the University's East Ann Arbor Health Center on Plymouth Road, east of US-23.

02-19-99