Room and Board To Cost More In Fall Semester

Room rate increases of 3-6 percent and meal plan increases of 3 percent have been approved by Sam Houston State University's governing board.

The Texas State University System Board of Regents set the rates during a regular quarterly meeting in Beaumont. The board oversees four Lamar institutions in addition to two Sul Ross State institutions, Texas State and Sam Houston State.

The board also authorized SHSU to spend $944,077 for Oracle software and services needed to upgrade the administrative database, the centralized repository of all official data related to university operations.
Installation will begin this spring and transition of data will be made during the summer.

One sidelight of the new software and services acquisition is that it will be standardized in other Texas State University System institutions and will save SHSU $174,710 due to Texas State transferring to SHSU licenses that they no longer need.

Reasons for the 3 percent meal plan increases include the impact of cost-of-living increases, inflation pass-throughs from food service provider ARAMARK, and increased utility costs.

The housing increases were also 3 percent for all rooms except those in facilities in which safes were recently installed. In those the rates increased 4-6 percent.

Other factors for the room rate increases were increases in costs relating to minimum wages, utilities, and other operational costs such as renovations, maintenance, and property insurance.

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SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
Feb. 25, 2008
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