President Turner sent a letter to students Tuesday informing them of an increase in tuition planned for the 2011-2012 school year. The increase affects tuition, student fees, housing and meal plans.

In an interview with The Daily Campus, President R. Gerald Turner said that the only new part of next year’s budget increase will be the new residential commons, which are being built to account for the upcoming sophomore housing requirement.

Tuition and fees increased 5.9 percent, identical to last year’s increase, making tuition and fees $39,430 for the upcoming year. Average housing will increase 3.9 percent to $8,490, and the most popular board plan will increase 3.5 percent to $4,725.

“We try to moderate [the increases],” Turner said. “We keep them at what most private universities are doing, though some are more and some are less.”

According to the letter sent to students, tuition is on the rise because of the recent economic decline, which resulted in declines in SMU’s endowment. Costs are also continuing to rise in “vital areas of the University’s operating budget, approximately two-thirds of which is supported by tuition and fees,” the letter said.

While need-based aid and full tuition scholarships will increase to meet the new tuition cost, merit scholarships will stay the same, Turner told The Daily Campus.

“You are given a certain amount for four years if you maintain a 3.0, and that allows a more consistent kinds of funding for the incoming students as well as transfer students,” he said.

However, the Second Century Campaign, the fundraising campaign that aims to raise $750 million by 2013, should increase the number of scholarships available to students in the future, Turner said.

Turner also indicated that he was unaware whether the increase in fees would mean more funding to Student Senate, whose entire budget is provided by student fees.

This budget is doled out to student organizations, intramurals and other initiatives on campus.

Austin Prentice, student body vice president, said that he would like to see “Student Senate’s budget increase according to student fees.”

“It would be disappointing if we did not receive additional funding, but Senate is working hard on ways to see increased funding when this same process occurs again next year,” Prentice said.

Though Prentice may end up being disappointed, he said that he has “full trust” in the Board’s determination of which organizations deserve budget increases.