Click the play button to hear Lauren Royston, Chuck Weaver, Holli Bruce and Kayla Bowden talk about room and board and meal plan rate increase at OU.

Room and Board Rate Increase Burdens OU Students

The Board of Regents has recently finalized the approval of the increase of the OU room and board and meal plan rates for the upcoming academic year 2009-2010.

According to the final agenda from the Board of Regents, the OU students living on Norman campus residence halls, OU Traditions Square Apartments, and for furnished Kraettli Apartments will pay 3% of increased rate compared to last years’ cost.

“I just think that there could be maybe other ways to budget the money at the university so that cost doesn’t have to be raised, because it is such a huge financial burden for the families who cannot afford a cost increase or the students who struggle to get by through college,” said Holli Bruce, OU junior, who plans to live in Adams Center from August 2009.

According to the Housing and Food Services Web site, the most common option for students living in resident halls is double at towers with a meal plan, and the new rate of this option will be $3,799 per semester, which is $111 higher compared to last years’ rate.

There is no increase proposed for unfurnished Kraettli Apartments or OU Traditions Square Apartments, according to the final agenda from the Board of Regents.

Lauren Royston, the marketing and public relations specialist at Housing and Food Services, said with the national increase in food cost and taking the consideration of the rise of the utilities for the university, the Housing and Food Services had to make some minimum adjustments to some of the charges to the students in order to compensate the increase.

“I am not the big fan of the increase of the housing and food rates, but if they have decided to, then I guess I just have to deal with paying the new rate,” said Kayla Bowden, OU sophomore, who plans to live in Walker Center from August 2009.

Bruce said, the OU students were really excited that there wasn’t going to be increase in tuition cost this year, and now the students find out it is the housing and food rate that is increasing, which is not so much pleasant news to hear.

Chuck Weaver, director of Food Services, said the good part about the Housing and Food Services being able to slightly increase the rate is that there will be additional services, and there won’t be any reduction to the services so the students are really getting all the benefits as far as the services that we provide.

Royston said, with the increase in rate, there will be extended hours of services of the restaurants on campus, and the quality of the services will keep developing for the students to enjoy living on campus.

“I am proud to say that even though the economy is a little tight, and things are getting a little rough, we are not looking at pull back in services,” said Weaver.

Bowden said, she understands the increase in housing and food rate, at the same time, she does not really expect much to be different, because since everything is pricey these days, it is just something the students or the families has to deal with.

According to the Housing and Food Services Web site, the Housing and Food Services provides safe, high quality and affordable housing and food services for students and is consistently ranked competitively with the Big XII in terms of cost.

According the final agenda from the Board of Regents, the percentage of the room and board rate increase of the Big XII institutions all varied, and the highest amount of rate increased institution was Missouri with 6.50% and there were no increase in Oklahoma State.

Compared with Big XII institutions, OU ranked bottom five in the room and board rate increase, which explains that the increase is not drastically different when compared to other Big XII institutions, according to the final agenda of the Board of Regents.

Bruce said, OU is famous for beautiful campus and nice facilities, but if it going to cost much just to come, than some of the students cannot be a part the students at OU just because they cannot afford to pay the costs.

According to the Housing and Food Services Web site, they use high efficiency and energy saved fluorescent lighting with the use of locally grown produce and they are working on getting greener all the time.

To minimize the chances of increasing the room and board rate, the Housing and Food Services work hard on some of the ideas that students could participate in order to save the utility fees, said Royston.

“Last year, we put up some posters in each hall so that students can know how they can contribute to be part of the university becoming greener,” said Weaver.

According to the Housing and Food Services Web site, the recycling competition between housing centers occurred in early September as part of H&F Green Week 2008. In this competition, the Adams Center won for recycling more paper, plastic and aluminum than the other housing centers.

Bruce said, the university probably has gone through this process, but they should consider the budget more thoughtfully and see what else they can cut instead of just raising the rates.

Bowden said, to budget the increase rate, maybe the landscaping or some of the remodeling can be cut, because sometimes she feels that the landscaping or remodeling are done too often, which is unnecessary in her point of view.

“I guess budgeting more in the first place in the cost of food or utility would be good, because obviously it is going to increase as time goes, so then every time the food or utility increases, the university do not have to keep increasing the cost,” said Bruce.

Royston said, she expects that the students will be pleased with the fact that they are getting to come in to refreshed facilities and the developed quality in service they are about to receive.

Bruce said, she is happy with the services on campus besides not just costing as much.

According to the final agenda from the Board of Regents, with the renovations completed in the residence halls, newly renovated rooms will be ready for move in at all of Adams, Couch, and Walker Center in August 2009.



Click the play button to hear Holli Bruce, OU junior, who plans to live in Adams Center from August 2009, talk about the increase of the room and board rate at OU and see the pictures of the resident halls at OU.