Students at Kansas University and other state schools will see housing and dining plan costs go up across the board next year.

The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss proposals for increasing housing and food service rates at all six state universities.

New rates, if approved as expected at the Regents’ December meeting, would take effect in summer and fall of 2016.

Kip Grosshans, associate director of KU Student Housing, said rates do inch up each year, as the housing program is self-sustaining.

“The only money we spend is the money we take in from the people who choose to live with us,” Grosshans said. “We have the same kinds of increases every year that any homeowner would have.”

Lewis Hall, center left, with Templin Hall at right.

A typical room and dining plan at KU would cost $9,586 for the 2016-17 school year, $262 or 2.8 percent more than this year’s rate, according to the proposal provided with the Regents’ meeting agenda.

KU’s “typical” rate — reflective of a double room in a renovated residence hall with a “Crimson Flex” dining plan — is higher than any other state school except Wichita State University, where a typical room and meal plan will cost $10,694 for 2016-17, according to the proposal. Other schools’ proposed rates are between $7,000 and $8,000.

This year, the average room and board charge for four-year, public institutions in the Midwest is $9,186, according to a College Board report cited in the Regents’ report.

Next year, KU Student Housing expects its capacity to be 4,900 students and its operating budget to be approximately $27 million, according to the Regents report.

The most expensive housing option at KU?

That will still be an apartment in the new McCarthy Hall apartments, at $10,154 per resident for the 2016-17 school year, according to the proposal.

The cheapest?

Miller and Watkins scholarship halls, which will cost $2,716 per person, according to the proposal.

Meal plans are an additional cost.

Grosshans said that apartment dwellers are not required to purchase meal plans, though many do purchase a limited plan.

Residence and scholarship hall residents are required to buy meal plans with the exception of Watkins and Miller, Grosshans said. That’s partly why they are so much cheaper — residents prepare their own meals in shared kitchens, and the halls also have an endowment fund that helps keep rates low for the women who live there.

According to the Regents’ memo, all six universities have different rate structures that account for different circumstances, such as the amount of outstanding bonded indebtedness, occupancy rates, age of facilities and “economies of scale related to the capacity of the housing and food service operation.”

Room and board for 2016-17

For Kansas state universities, these are the proposed ‘typical’ room and meal plan rates for 2016-17, plus the percent increase over the current year.

KU — $9,586, 2.8 percent

Kansas State — $8,520, 3.5 percent

Wichita State — $10,694, 1.2 percent

Emporia State — $7,768, 5.2 percent

Pittsburg State — $7,572, 2.7 percent

Fort Hays State — $7,669, 2.6 percent

Source: Kansas Board of Regents