Music students at Slippery Rock University will have to pay an extra $350 per semester starting in the fall semester.

The Council of Trustees voted at a quarterly meeting held via Zoom on Thursday to implement the fee to offset the deficit cost the program runs every year. An informational page on the trustees lists the total income of the music program at $2,326,217 a year, with its expenditures at $3,059,017 per year.

SRU president William Behre said the one-on-one lessons offered to students in music programs are a large expense to the university, and the $700 the students will pay each year will help offset that cost.

“We want to sustain the arts, but we want to do it responsibly,” he said after the meeting Thursday. “The fee allows us to do that.”

The trustees also approved the university's capital budget for the 2021-22 school year, which included an allocation of $27.2 million to be used to renovate Morrow Field House. According to Behre, the field house renovation has been a priority for the university since the Council of Trustees first approved the project in 2015, but it took a while for the state to allocate the university funds to get started.

Renovations to Morrow are now scheduled to begin in 2025, which Behre said are needed after years of wear and tear to the facility.

“The field house is old and needs some sprucing up,” Behre said. “This vote puts a shovel in the ground before 2025.”

The Council of Trustees' meeting at 4 p.m. topped off a day of committee meetings that are held every quarter. SRU's next quarterly meeting will take place June 3 and 4, according to the university's website.