The Iowa Board of Regents voted Thursday to establish an increase in residence hall fees.

Iowa State will see an increase of 3.6 percent, the University of Iowa 5.9 percent and the University of Northern Iowa 8.3 percent.

Peter Englin, director of the Department of Residence, said there are two main reasons for the increase – rising salaries and utility costs.

The overall salary increase comes from a collective bargaining agreement for merit increases made between union workers on the residence hall staff.

This occurs annually as the university matches state guidelines.

Utility costs have risen as occupancy has gone up over the past few years. However, that rise has also allowed more funds to come in.

“The higher occupancy than last year has created an additional net revenue that wasn’t in our initial plan,” Englin said.

Englin said the annual price increases are mandatory as routine maintenance is performed. Normally, Englin said, fee increases aren’t driven by major projects, but this year, the residence halls will be implementing a new heat- and smoke-detection system.

Englin said the low fee increase is a reward of sorts for students who continue to stay in the residence halls.

“We always try to increase as close to the reasonable tuition increase,” he said. “Our intent is to minimize any rate increases higher than forecasted.”

Students are involved in mandating these decisions. The Inter-Residence Hall Association, Frederiksen Court Community Council, and Schilletter/University Village Council voted and approved rates before they were submitted to the Board of Regents.

“The budget forecast has always been a 4 percent base, but it hasn’t been that high. They are driven by mandatory costs in increases for the department,” Englin said. “We sit with students on how to pass these mandatory cost increases on to students and if they wish to do anything else in addition.”

Von Stange, director of university housing at the University of Iowa, said price increases are “mostly inflationary except for a certain percent used for additions.”

Iowa is also seeing an increase in fees because of salaries and utilities, but is also in its second year of a major renovation, adding 100 beds to Burge Hall.

Money is set aside for preventative maintenance to keep the residence halls in good condition. Stange said $7 million has been set aside over the past couple of years, and after this year, that amount will increase to $10 million.

UNI Executive Director of Residence Michael Hager said increases in fees are not driven only by salaries and utilities, but also by the increase in the cost of food, along with routine maintenance and a fire safety system project.

“Price increases are higher than normal this year. The last two years have seen a larger increase,” Hager said. “Last year, minimum wage caused a significant increase, and this year, the fire system.”

Iowa State is confident in its fee increase because its proposals are always presented to students before being submitted.

“We provided some options to them [IRHA] last fall and agreed this is good proposal based on fixed cost increases,” Englin said.