UNIVERSITY PARK (TNS) — Penn State University’s base room and board rate for the 2022-23 academic year could increase by 3.5% under a proposal endorsed by a trustee panel Thursday. It goes to the full board Friday for a final vote.
The proposed increase, which would add $212 dollars a semester to most students’ fees, is based on a standard double room and the most common meal plan, officials said just after the trustee’s committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning met.
The trustee panel also endorsed renovation projects at Penn State Beaver and University Park, as well as the purchase of a property at 331 W. College Ave. in State College. They, too, await a final board vote Friday.
If the new room and board rates are approved, a standard double room — which makes up the largest percentage of the university’s room inventory — would increase by $124 per semester to $3,687. A midlevel meal plan, the most popular option, would rise by $88 per semester to $2,604, officials said.
It would bring total per-semester room and board rate to $6,291 for the 2022-23 academic year. according to university officials.
John Papazoglou, Penn State associate vice president for Auxiliary and Business Services, called it a modest increase made necessary by what Penn State called “unprecedented inflation” in food costs and utilities, as well as payroll and benefits and other operations.
”Our top priority is to provide our residential students with an exceptional living and dining experience that is a great value for the price,” Mr. Papazoglou said in a statement released after the vote. “We are committed to doing our part to help reduce the overall cost of a Penn State education, and that includes doing everything we reasonably can to reduce our costs and find efficiencies.”
The panel also agreed to advance plans for an $8.43 million renovation of the General Classroom Building at Penn State Beaver and a $34.3 million renovation and expansion of the Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel Building on the University Park campus, part of the university’s Applied Research Laboratory.
The land and building on West College Avenue would be acquired from the University Club for a maximum of $4,070,000, officials said. It would be added to the university’s inventory for an unspecified future use.
