The University of Colorado Boulder discussed $39 million in new spending money during the Friday Board of Regents meeting along with approving increased student fees, tuition rates and compensation for classified staff and merit salary pool.

Seven million of the $39 million would go toward the 2016-2017 fiscal year while $32 million would be for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

For next year, the university hopes to put $7.6 million of this money toward enrollment growth, 5.3 percent toward compression initiative to even out the pay between new hires and those who have been employed at the university for longer and may have been hired at lower salaries, and 3.5 percent toward deferred maintenance, among other campus initiatives.

Tuition is increasing across the board for incoming CU Boulder students, not including continuing undergraduates who had their tuition locked in last year. Resident freshman undergraduate tuition is increasing by 4.9 percent, making it $10,248 for the next fiscal year. Non-resident undergraduate tuition is climbing by 3.2 percent, reaching $34,382 next year. Resident and non-resident graduate tuition is going up by 3 percent, hitting $11,160 and $29,502, respectively.

According to CU System documents, the proposed tuition percent increases at CU campuses are predicted to be among the lowest in the state next year.

To invest in employees, the university is instituting a continuing 2.5 percent merit salary pool for faculty, officers and exempt professions awarded based on merit at each campus and system administration.

A 1.75 percent increase in cost-of-living and .75 percent salary pool for classified staff will also be based on merit and revised pay ranges .

Student fees at CU were approved to go up by about $75, reaching $1,839 for the next fiscal year. A mental health fee is increasing by $23.79 per term for expanded student counselling services, and a mandatory cost increase of $13.76 was approved for student government activity fees, along with inflationary increase for housing and dining services.

Regents at the meeting were encouraged by the comparably low tuition increases but stressed that the state’s ability to increase funding for higher education was imperative in order to keep college affordable for all students.

“I think you can see that the rate increases are smaller than they used to be,” said Todd Saliman, vice president of budget and chief financial officer. “But I think we all agree that they’d be better if they were even smaller.”

Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-473-1106, Hernandeze@dailycamera.com or @ehernandez