Book 'em, SEMO

Students picked up textbooks Friday and Southeast Missouri State University readied its new shuttle transit pathway as the campus geared up for the start of the spring 2002 semester.

The university's shuttle vans will be operating for the first time on the new $750,000 shuttle roadway that's designed to keep the buses off busy Henderson Street and provide a faster commute across the Cape Girardeau campus.

The bus path runs from Dempster Hall to Academic Hall and gates have been installed to keep other traffic off the route. Eight faculty and staff parking spaces have been eliminated behind Academic Hall, eliminating a traffic bottleneck, school officials said.

"It was really unsafe," said Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president of administration and enrollment management. "The shuttles had difficulty turning there."

Classes start Monday, even as school officials try to maneuver around state funding obstacles that could mean higher-than-usual tuition hikes next fall.

As for James Hayes, he's just happy to be back at school as he has been at the start of every semester for more than two decades.

The 87-year-old Cape Girardeau man works two weeks at the beginning of each semester and two weeks at the end, checking students' identification cards as they pick up their textbooks in the University Center.

"It's something to do," said Hayes, who knows his textbooks by their density. "Nursing textbooks are thick books," he said.

More than 8,700 students will be enrolled in classes this spring, including courses taught at outlying education centers and on the Web. School officials predict enrollment will exceed last spring's 8,713 figure.

Textbook services already has mailed out a number of textbooks, including one to a student in the Netherlands who is taking a Southeast class online.

Students rent more than 30,000 textbooks from the university, one of only a few schools nationwide with a rental system. Most universities require students to buy books.

"It would easily be a couple hundred dollars," said Tim Lewis, a senior from Wolf Lake, Ill., who transferred from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale last year where he had to buy his textbooks.

At Southeast, students pay an average of $14.35 a book, less than half the cost of buying a textbook at many schools.

"I like that," said Lewis, 35, as his 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Molly, watched him pick up his textbooks from stacks piled on rows of metal shelves.

James Robbins, 21, just finished two years of community college in Park Hills, Mo. "I just wanted to get on with my degree," said Robbins of his decision to start classes at Southeast in the middle of the school year.

About 130 new students, including transfers, are expected to be enrolled for the spring semester. The rest are returning students.

Even as the new semester gets under way, the university administration is bracing for tight state funding in the 2003 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"We are not expecting any increase in appropriation," said Art Wallhausen, associate to the president.

The state Legislature last year appropriated $50.3 million for the university operations, but the governor withheld more than $4.6 million. The state normally withholds 3 percent from all state agencies, and the university made its financial plans based on $48.8 million. However, the withholding was $3.15 million more than the university anticipated.

This caused Southeast to dip into its reserve fund, delay new hiring and postpone equipment purchases.

Southeast has asked for more than $5.4 million for fiscal 2003 above last year's appropriation. The money would be used to cover a wide range of items, including pay raises, roof repairs for several campus buildings and expansion of interactive television, Web classes and computer labs.

But Wallhausen sees little hope for such budget requests for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The River Campus arts school project remains the university's top capital spending priority. Southeast wants to turn a former Catholic seminary in Cape Girardeau into a visual and performing arts campus.

Southeast has requested $22 million to renovate Academic Hall, the stately campus landmark that houses the school's main administrative offices. But with funding for the River Campus project still on hold, Wallhausen said the Academic Hall project isn't likely to get funded in this legislative session.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123