The University Board of Trustees decided Tuesday to implement a $250 per semester fee to address deferred maintenance issues.

The new fee will account for 35 percent of the $400 million currently needed for backlog maintenance. An additional $400 million is estimated to be needed in the next 10 years for projected maintenance. The fee will apply to incoming freshman beginning Fall 2006 and continuing through 2010.

Nick Klitzing, student trustee for Urbana-Champaign and junior in LAS, said it is important that students understand where their money is going.

“There are plans underway to make sure students are more involved in the distribution of the money,” Klitzing said. “I think it’s a great idea to put signs up where changes have been made telling students that it’s their money that provided for that change. For example, if there’s a plasma screen TV, then put up a sign so students know that they paid for it, instead of letting them assume that the University did, when tuition continues to increase.”

Larry Eppley, chairman for the Board of Trustees, said the University needs to look into making the improvements in a way that will promote energy efficiency to help save money in the future.

“The fee is roughly a third of what we need to do all this, so we’ll be looking to other sources,” Eppley said. “For example, if we have to replace windows as part of deferred maintenance, if we can do that with better quality insulated windows, that will create its own savings.”

Eppley set the issue of creating an energy task force before the board in an attempt to integrate such changes in the plans for maintenance.

The fee, in conjunction with increases in tuition, current fees, and room and board increases, will raise the total cost of education for incoming freshmen by $877 from the current year.

The higher tuition, in combination with internal cuts and reallocations, will generate an additional $55 million for the University system, according to a press release from the office for University relations.

Klitzing said he understands the necessity of increasing tuition.

“We need the extra revenue because of cuts in state funding,” Klitzing said. “We can either choose to increase tuition to strengthen the University or let it dwindle.”

He also supported the increased financial aid spending approved by the board. Since fiscal year 2000, the University has increased financial aid given from University resources by $27 million.

“I think it gets harder and harder every year as tuition increases for students, especially from middle income families, to pay for school,” Klitzing said. “We’re not there yet, but I’m afraid that in the future, if more financial aid is not extended to those students, they will start to be squeezed out.”