Budget cuts and increased costs for student housing at Kansas State University may be on the horizon.
Due to a decrease in tuition revenue and increases in payments to KPERS and insurance coverage, K-State is looking at millions in budget cuts and a rise in cost of housing at both dorms and campus apartments for the year 2019.
Budget cuts
KSU is looking at budget cuts of around $2.4 million for their 2019 budget due to lower than anticipated tuition revenue. The university took in $4.5 million less than projected for the current fiscal year.
University officials say the cuts have been mitigated by $2.1 million in reserve funds being shifted to offset the cuts, but the remaining shortfall will have to be made up in cuts to various departments and services.
Departments that generate revenue will see budget cuts of 0.9 percent while other departments will be cut at 1 percent.
Housing hikes
The Kansas Board of Regents voted at their meeting Wednesday to initially approve increases to housing costs at Kansas State.
The current plan raises rents at 25 out of 33 varieties of rooms in dormitories as well as at 18 out of 19 varieties of campus apartments. Dorm increases vary from $0 to $250 per semester while on-campus apartment increases vary from $60 to $400 per semester (not counting for the unfurnished townhouse variety at Jardine, the sole variety that didn’t increase). A full breakdown of the increases can be found on the Board of Regents website starting at page 57.
Meal plan increases were also initially approved by the Board for the year 2019. All access plans at for residence hall and Honors House residents are set to rise $60 per semester, a rate of 1.3 percent. The Any 14 plan, which includes 14 meals per week, is set to rise $170 per semester, a rate of 4.2 percent. All meal plans at K-State’s Polytechnic Campus will see a 4 percent increase. The full breakdown can be found on page 58 of the above link.
The Board of Regents will look to finalize the plan at their meeting next month.
