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A lawsuit filed by former residents of Watkins and Miller scholarship halls at Kansas University is continuing to have unintended consequences for some of those who initiated it.

KU officials are proposing a 25 percent increase in room rates for the 2005-2006 school year to create a reserve fund for major improvements at the halls. A court found a similar reserve fund created with money from the trust left by Elizabeth Miller Watkins violated the trust agreement.

"I think it's definitely an unfortunate repercussion of the suit," said Lindsay Poe, a KU graduate and plaintiff in the case. "That's something that the women who filed the lawsuit would have taken into consideration. I don't know if it would have changed our minds."

The increases at Miller and Watkins halls are part of KU's 2005-2006 housing cost proposal being considered next week by the Kansas Board of Regents.

Overall, average increases for most residence and scholarship halls will be 5.5 percent, to $5,502 a year for room and board. Average increases at regents universities range from 3.5 percent at Wichita State University to 7 percent at Emporia State University.

Ken Stoner, director of student housing at KU, said the increases were necessary to cover increased costs, especially in food and natural gas prices.

"It's pretty much based on the costs we realize," he said. "There's no state money involved (in the housing department). It's strictly a cost for providing the services."

Stoner noted that a study released this year found KU's room and board rates were $1,006 less than the national average for public, four-year universities.

Rates at Miller and Watkins halls are subsidized by a trust left by Elizabeth Miller Watkins and would remain $650 lower than other scholarship halls. But the proposed increases mean the gap between the two prices is quickly closing, especially after a 33 percent increase before this school year.

Residence and scholarship hall rates at Kansas University will increase an average of 5.5 percent next year. But residents of Miller and Watkins scholarship halls again will face a larger-than-average increase as a result of the fallout of their lawsuit against KU. On Friday KU freshman, from left, Melissa Jackson, Beloit, Anna Bassham, Wichita, and Marcela Telles, Recife, Brazil, visited outside Watkins Hall.

The lawsuit filed in 2001 against KU and Bank of America, which administers the Watkins trust, claimed interest on the fund wasn't being spent on the halls for maintenance, as intended when the trust was established.

A judge ruled the university must use all the money generated from the trust fund each year. Because of that, Stoner said money must be saved for larger repairs such as windows and roofing.

"We can't accrue trust earnings, so we're accommodating that piece of it now," he said.

Stoner said the trust had been returning less money in recent years because of the economic downturn.

And students may face an additional set of increases depending on a ruling pending by Douglas County District Judge Jack Murphy.

KU wants $283,533 in attorney fees for Bank of America paid by the former residents who brought the case and their attorneys. The plaintiffs have said the money should come from the trust, which KU officials have said would require them to increase rents even more.

Aubrey Tetreault, president of Watkins Scholarship Hall, said the low cost of the two halls was the reason many students chose to live there.

"It's one of the reasons I'm still living in a 10-by-10-foot room," said Tetreault, a senior from Oklahoma City. "I think it's somewhat irritating to see a rise in rates when you compare us to the price of other halls."

She said living conditions had improved in her hall the past few years, with air conditioning installed during the 2001-2002 school year. Some plaintiffs have said they thought the installation was a result of the lawsuit, though KU has said the improvement was planned before the suit was filed.

The University of Kansas: Comprehensive Fee Schedule All Scholarship Hall Council of the University of Kansas

"It's a double-edged sword," Tetreault said. "People will argue you're only paying $1,500 a year to live somewhere instead of $6,000 to live on Daisy Hill. For someone who was here when it was $800, it's disappointing it's gone up so much."

And that's frustrating for Poe, the plaintiff who now lives in Overland Park. But she said the long-term outlook of the halls was better because of the lawsuit.

"If it means women will be living there in 20 years, it's worth it," she said. "Whether it's worth the $300 a year for the students living there now, that's harder to say."

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