Central Michigan University residence halls have been called home by over 4,000 students this academic year, according to Erica Johnson, the interim assistant vice president of Student Affairs.

Students who pay for their room and board contribute to the total revenue of Residence Life, which has been over $64 million in 2024-25, according to the CMU Operating Budget.

The Residence Life budget is managed by Auxiliary Services, while it functions under the Division of Student Affairs, said Cal Seelye, executive director of Auxiliary Services.

Johnson said she calls it a partnership between the two departments.

“I think there's pretty consistent and ongoing conversations about what Residence Life needs to be able to operate the ... healthy, safe and community driven ... living for students,” Johnson said.

Housing and meal prices

CMU offers three housing communities with 21 residence halls, according to the university’s website.

The cost of a standard residence hall room will be about $6,314 a semester in the 2025-26 academic year, which is a 4% increase from this year, according to a MLive article.

CMU also has several meal plan options that are required for students who live in residence halls. A meal plan will cost $3,050 per semester in 2025-26, according to the CMU website. MLive reports that these meal plan rates increased by 3.5% for next year.

Seelye said the decision to increase prices is based on several factors, which are the general increase of the cost of living, minimum wage, food prices and utility costs.

“We look at what the rates are for this year, and then we go through and look at what we see as potential for increase in revenue, and then what our expense is going to do as it ties into that,” Seelye said.

He said CMU’s Board of Trustees is responsible for approving housing and meal rates.

“It's an ongoing conversation and partnership between Auxiliary Services and Residence Life to look at what is it going to cost to operate our residence halls to ensure they're safe places for our students to live and study,” Johnson said. “And then looking at how do we keep CMU an affordable and accessible place for our students ... (and) a place that students can get a really high quality on-campus experience for a reasonable price.”

Residence Life projects

Besides maintaining residence halls and paying staff salaries, Residence Life also pays for construction and renovation projects.

For example, Seelye said Residence Life funded the demolition of Northwest Apartments, which cost a little under $5 million. Seelye said the office uses reserve funds for such projects.

“If we have a major project come up ... (and) if we don’t use the money that we have in reserves, we have to work with the vice president for Finance and Administrative Services to go out and see if we can get, essentially, a loan to pay for that,” he said.

Currently, Seelye said, Merrill dining hall is under renovation, but this project is completely funded by Chartwells, CMU’s dining services provider.

In the future, Seelye said Residence Life’s goal is to start updating South and East residence halls.