NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Rutgers University students are paying about 1.85% more in tuition and mandatory fees during this academic year thanks to a vote by the school’s Board of Governors on July 19.

Undergraduate, in-state, full-time Art and Sciences students at the New Brunswick campus now pay an average of $14,638 per year, after the increase.

The “cost of attendance” for students who choose live on-campus is $27,090 which encompasses tuition, fees, and room and board. These estimates do not reflect the costs for students attending any of the other Rutgers schools.

The 1.85% hike is lower than the University’s average increase over the past three years: roughly 2.1%

The tuition increase is a result of the 2.5% increase in the average contract salary of the faculty, Rutgers’ new VP of Financial Planning and Budgeting Kathy Dettloff toldNJ.com.

A preliminary meeting was held on April 19 and open to students before the budget was drafted during the spring semester had a total of four students in attendance according to The Daily Targum.

The details of that meeting weren’t publicized until a week before the meeting was held, according to students. The meeting was also scheduled to occur during a campus march to end sexual assault.

At the April 19 meeting, Rutgers President Robert Barchi stated that the state’s continued decline of financial support for the University would be one reason for an increase on tuition and mandatory fees.

“Unfortunately we are in a situation where we have no other revenue sources,” Barchi said, according to the Daily Targum.

“And if the state continues to ratchet down its support we try to be more and more efficient…  but there’s a limit to how much you can get out of that, so I don’t want to raise tuition at all and I certainly want to make sure that we keep Rutgers affordable for the students least able to afford it,” continued Barchi.

The Board of Governors traditionally vote on annual tuition amounts at their formal meeting in July, which is open to students and the general public.

However, while there are students that attend Rutgers University during the summer, it’s only a fraction of the attendees during the academic school year.