Members of the Residence Hall Student Association (RHSA) voted to approve Housing and Food Services' (HFS) proposed five-percent rate increase and dining-plan changes at last night's RHSA meeting in Lander Hall.

A discussion followed the vote regarding the proposal's policy of discontinuing the refund of unspent dining plan balances to students.

A vote of RHSA representatives passed with 12 in favor, three opposed and eight abstentions, while a vote of the general council, comprised of any on-campus residents present at the meeting, yielded 25 in favor, five opposed and two abstentions.

The HFS Board of Directors will now seek final approval from the University's Board of Regents March 22.

If approved, the proposal would increase the cost of housing for the UW's residence halls by five percent next year, do away with refunding unspent meal plan balances and eliminate what is currently the lowest-priced meal plan, in addition to other changes.

"I think it's a great thing to get rid of the buyback," said senior M'Liss DeWald. "This a huge step for UW in terms of services that they can provide. A lot of people get caught up in themselves and we never look at the future of UW and its students."

Several students voiced concern regarding HFS's decision to stop the reimbursements, which HFS Director Paul Brown previously said have totaled nearly $1 million-dollars-per year in the past.

Ben Shannon, a dorm resident, said the proposed changes could have been better explained.

"None of the people I've talked to — and I've talked to a lot of people doing research for this — knew about it," he said. "When the students in general see something like this, it was one line [in the press release]. There was no explanation. You want to know why. There're a lot of people who are going to be upset. When you have something of this magnitude its not going to be a small thing that's not going to go unnoticed. They're going to see it and they're going to want to know why."

Shane Morris, RHSA representative from Haggett Hall, said student reactions had been mostly negative.

"Every single person I talked to was pretty much against it," he said. "They didn't know they weren't getting a refund."

Brown said he was not surprised by the debate.

"We did expect [a strong response] because it's been in place for a lot of years, and there's an expectation that that's available to them," he said. "I was also absolutely pleased with the support we got, which was considerable. Many students understand what we're trying to do and support it."

Brown stressed the measure was in place to ensure HFS could effectively budget for the year.

"To meet all students' demands and our own financial demands — and we do carry some debt — we've stretched ourselves the last few years, and honestly we don't think we've provided the best service to [students] that we can," he said. "We need to stabilize the system so you can leave happy with the service we've been providing. To meet most of the students' needs, we need to be sure there is enough money in the system, that we're not guessing."

In addition to the question of refunds, several students were concerned about the rising minimum cost of living the residence halls.

"I think it's getting tougher just to stay in [the residence halls] with food costs getting so high," said Daniel Meier, a junior who has lived for three years in the residence halls.

Despite the debate, Brown said HFS would move forward with the proposal.

"We feel very strongly that this is the right thing to do," he said. "We have a vote that endorses that and we're going to go ahead and present it to the Board of Regents."

Reach reporter Keegan Hamilton at news@thedaily.washington.edu.