For the 2017-2018 academic school year, there will be a 5 percent increase in room and board costs at Wayne State College, according to the Nebraska State College System (NSCS) Board materials.

“On the room and board front, though, I would encourage folks to look at that because we did lower the rates for single rooms so that more students would have an opportunity to have single rooms,” said WSC President Marysz Rames. “We were very mindful of trying to provide new options for students.”

Director of Residence Life Quinneka Lee said, “There usually is a range from 3 to 5 percent increase, a lot of standard institutions may do 3 to 10 percent, but there are some institutions that can do up to 24 percent.”

The renovations on Bowen had no effect on raising the tuition rate, since the money spent on renovations came from revenue bonds, but Bowen will now be considered a renovated building, so those specific room and board rates also saw an increase. The room and board will cover the cost of living and utilities.

“Pile, Neihardt and Bowen are now considered our renovated spaces, and so those are higher than Morey, Terrace, Anderson and Berry would be,” Lee said.

The cost of rooms in residence halls Anderson, Berry, Morey and Terrace will cost $3,640 per academic year compared to $3,470 from the 2016-2017 academic year. Bowen, Pile and Neihardt will cost $4,040 per academic year compared to $3,780 from the previous year.

“There are some changes, but to us I do think they fit into our 3 to 5 percent range,” Lee said. “The highest hike would be the premium rooms. We try and take into consideration the changing operational things as an institution but also looking at students and the feedback that they are giving us and we hope that is reflective.”

Premium rooms are designed for multiple occupants that have dropped below the rooms capacity. When this happens, the remaining students in the room may choose to buy out the room for themselves. This often happens with double rooms only occupied by one person.

“We looked at data from last year and a lot of first year students like having their own space, not so much the Bowen, Neihardt and Pile kind of price for a premium room,” Lee said. “Students may not want to pay out of pocket for a room by themselves, so we were mindful of that.

They thought having premium room space in Morey, Berry, Terrace and Anderson would be beneficial for students.

“While yes, when you do the overall math, room and board may have gone up five percent, but if you want a single room that went down,” Rames said. “I think we provided a lot of nice options for students.”

Additional material for this story provided by Staff Writer Nate Neary.