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MARQUETTE -- They're anticipating rising health insurance costs for their employees and coming up with long-term solutions.

With the new requirements of President Obama's health care plan and the continued rising insurance costs, N.M.U. will see their insurance rates increase next year.  This is something they're working to lower, especially moving into a year where support from the state is anticipated to be less.

"We're doing greater and greater efforts to try to control the costs, however, they still are out pacing inflation," said Gavin Leach V.P. of Finance and Administration.

The board acknowledged that it may be necessary to raise employee contributions to their health care benefits.

"It looks like, you know, next year the state budget is going to be in tough shape,” Leach said, “and so we're preparing and looking for ways to reduce the costs as well as, you know, as we move forward, it's going to be a greater sharing of responsibility with the employees on overall health care costs."

This change is scheduled to take effect within the next two years.  They're also looking at ways to make the campus a healthier place to work.  The board agreed the healthier employees are, the more money the university saves.  One idea brought to the attention of the board is becoming a smoke-free campus.  It's an effort N.M.U. President Les Wong has presented more than once.

"Two years ago I had proposed that this last summer, July 1, we would go that way, and in a very spirited campus discussion, we couldn't budge off of the fifty-fifty split,” said Wong.  “And so I just decided that we would go in a hold.”

He plans to make a more aggressive push and says if more than half of the students on campus support the effort, it could become an adopted policy.

"I think I need to step up and put it in front of students and employees again,” Wong said, “and say, you know, we now have more incentive to tackle this question better than we have."

President Wong says he will make this a priority in the coming year.