Lincoln University students will pay about 3 percent more for room and board starting this fall.
But a $10 per-credit-hour Student Athletic Fee - approved in April - won't be imposed this coming school year.
LU President Kevin Rome said not charging the fee was in-keeping with the Missouri public colleges' and universities' agreement with Gov. Jay Nixon not to raise fees in exchange for state budget increases.
"We currently don't have that fee, and we're not going to implement it in the fall," Rome told the board, saying he wanted to make the change clear, after announcing the increase just a couple months ago.
Meeting in Jefferson City, the curators approved increases for residence hall rooms - with different rates depending on the rooms involved - and a $78 per semester increase in meal plans.
"The university provides unlimited meal plans (for) the current rate, $1,502," Chief Financial Officer Sandy Koetting told the board in a memo, which contained the background for the proposal to increase that rate to $1,580/semester.
That "equates to $14.11 per day or an average of $4.71 for three meals," she said - a deal not likely to be found elsewhere or by students living in nearby apartments.
Lincoln officials looked at apartment costs near the LU campus, finding rents ranging from $2,055-$2,475 over a five-month period.
"Our new rates ranges are from $1,700 to $2,400, for just the basic double-occupancy," Koetting explained. "So, we're still very competitive and, hopefully, still very affordable for our student population."
And, Koetting told the curators, off-campus housing comes with additional costs. LU's costs include utilities like electricity, water, cable and Internet, while those are extras in most apartments.
"With the cost-of-living increases, that's to be expected. You can't do business this year as you did it last year.
"The costs (still) are pretty low for our students - and our costs already are relatively low - so we feel comfortable with the increases that we've made," Rome told the News Tribune after Thursday's meeting.
Along with Missouri's other colleges and universities, Lincoln agreed not to raise tuition and fees after lawmakers raised all schools' budgets by a 4 percent performance funding increase.
But, Rome told the curators, room and board fees were not included in that agreement.
"We considered the cost of inflation, and that's what we tried to stay around," Rome said. "We also looked at the ability to maintain our facilities and, when charging such low rents, that has been a challenge to maintain our facilities.
"We're not generating enough revenue to do that."
Curators approved a $43.8 million spending plan for the business year that begins July 1 with almost $37.9 million in the general fund and $6.9 million in auxiliary expenses.
The board agreed to re-hire the Springfield-based BKD auditing firm for Lincoln's annual financial audit.
The four bidders' fees were close to identical, Koetting said, and keeping the same firm means "they get to know the institution and provide better advice. That provides more time to audit than to figure out our processes."
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