BOARD OF REGENTS CONSIDERS INCREASE IN INCIDENTAL FEES

Fee hikes are on the agenda when the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents meets today.

The regents will consider raising incidental fees by $5 per credit hour for in-state students and $10 for out-of-state students.

The board will also be asked to raise fees for its two off-campus apartment buildings on Washington Street.

The regents are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the apartment fee hikes are "small increases."

The monthly charge would increase from $10 to $25 for two-bedroom apartments, depending on the size and location. "Some of them have larger rooms. Some of them have balconies. There are just all sorts of desirability factors," said Wallhausen.

The monthly rent for one-bedroom apartments would be $220 a month, a $15 hike, he said.

Students would pay from $270 to $295 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, Wallhausen said.

In other business, the regents are expected to define the school's admission standards in terms of one of four categories: highly selective, selective, moderately selective and open enrollment.

University officials have been pushing for a moderately selective designation.

Southeast's two new regents Cape Girardeau attorney Don Dickerson and St. Louis newspaper editor Patricia Washington are expected to meet fellow board members.

But Wallhausen said the two newest regents won't be involved in today's decision-making. That's because the Missouri Senate has yet to confirm the two, who were named by Gov. Mel Carnahan to replace outgoing board members Carl Ben Bidewell of Poplar Bluff and Daniel Williams Jr. of St. Louis.

In other action today, the regents will consider a construction time line for the Rosengarten Athletic Complex and be asked to approve a project to boost the power of KRCU, 90.9 FM, the National Public Radio station at Southeast.

Plans call for boosting power from its current 100 watts to 6,000 watts.

The total price tag is $236,327, which includes the transmission equipment and antenna, the cost of building a 230-foot-tall radio tower and an adjacent transmitter building at the radio station site on Henderson Street, and installation of the equipment.

About $46,000 of the cost will be borne by a federal grant, said Susan Westfall, the station's general manager. The remainder will come from university funds and private donations, she said.

If all goes right, construction could begin by May and be completed by summer, Westfall said.

"I think that tomorrow is hopefully the last green light we need," Westfall said Monday afternoon. "We are very optimistic that late in the summer we will be broadcasting at 6,000 watts."

The power upgrade, which required Federal Communications Commission approval, has been in the planning stages for a couple of years now.

Westfall said it's taken some time to get all the regulatory, planning and funding pieces together for the project. "It looks like the puzzle is going to be a whole one this summer," she said.