Tuition will increase 1.6 percent for the 2016-17 fiscal year, similar to a 1.65 percent increase last year.
The Board of Trustees also voted unanimously to approve several budgets for different funds for next year, which ended up accounting for new student tuition fees of $3,821 per semester.
One of the funds, Ball State's general fund, is one that is primarily paid for by students.
It pays for a number of different things every year — student scholarships, the new College of Health's future launch and increases in faculty salaries. It's primarily paid for with student tuition revenue, but Bernie Hannon, treasurer and vice president for business affairs, said it hasn't always been that way.
"We have flipped the table," Hannon said. "It used to be that the student [tuition] paid about a third of the [general fund] revenue, and the rest came from state funding. … Now, that's been completely flipped. Students and families pay about 60 percent, and the state then pays about a third."
Hannon said this is happening at other universities across the nation and has been for a number of years.
"It's not any different for us," he said.
Even with the increase in student tuition, which will help pay for the $5.6 million budget for the general fund, Hannon said students at Ball State will be paying less in tuition and student fees than students at neighboring universities.
"We put more of our money in the classrooms, we spend about 5 percent more on instruction that our peers do," Hannon said. "And our net price, what students actually pay out of pocket, is almost 20 percent below our peers."
Kay Bales, the vice president for student affairs and enrollment, said Ball State is currently expecting around 3,700 students for the class of 2,020, a net increase of 75 students from the class of 2019. She said 92 percent are expected to be on-campus students.
Students who live on campus pay an additional student services fee. This goes toward L.A. Pittenger Student Center programs such as Late Nite, shows at John R. Emens Auditorium, athletics and other university student programs.
Hannon said because the number of students living on campus has decreased, there is $400,000 less in the Student Services Fees Plan for 2016-17 than in the previous year.
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