“When you think about what we offer in residence halls, we offer better value than what you would see at most of our Big Ten competitors,” Gore said. “Our integrated dining program is revolutionary for college and university food services.”

In August, the residence hall double room rate for undergraduate students will increase $160 and the silver unlimited meal plan will increase $224. This will bring the standard double room and board plan to about $8,154 — up from $7,770 this academic year.

For university apartments, the rates will remain unchanged for one bedroom and two bedroom units in Spartan Village. The monthly rate for apartments in University Village will increase by $7 per person.

The housing and dining increase in the 2010-11 academic year was 5.1 percent.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said after breaking the costs down, the cost of living in the residence halls comes to about $36 per day. This includes a place to live, utility costs, unlimited food, fresh linens and all the programming for students that goes on in the halls, she said.

MSU’s housing and dining rates rank in the middle of the Big Ten — which is where MSU strives to be, Simon added.

“We have to desire to make sure this value is preserved for future generations of students,” she said. “I think we’re an extraordinary value for what we provide.”

MSU Trustee Melanie Foster said part of the value comes in the unlimited meal plan.

The renovations on residence halls also are necessary for attracting students to MSU since many of them are more than 50 years old, she said.

“I eat in the dorms fairly frequently and really it’s a great value and a high quality product,” Foster said.

Thirty-one undergraduate seniors also were honored during the meeting for graduating in May with 4.0 grade point averages.

During public comment, Andrew Cooper, vice president for organizing and outreach for the Graduate Employees Union, said the GEU came to a tentative agreement for a new contract with the university this morning. The negotiations ended at 6:30 a.m. after a “marathon” 13 straight hours of bargaining, he said.

The GEU negotiates a new contract with the university every three years and the bargaining team will recommended its members — the about 1,300 graduate student teaching assistants on campus — approve the new contract, Cooper said.

Negotiations began in February.

“We believe our concerns have been addressed,” Cooper said. “We’re proud to have avoided most of the heat and rancor that have characterized previous year’s negotiations and we hope to continue to build on that in the future.”