IMPROVEMENT OF STADIUM COULD BE PUT ON HOLD

Southeast Missouri State University would trim $2.32 million from its $108 million operating budget under a cost-cutting plan that includes delaying Houck Stadium and Field House improvements for a year.

The board of regents is scheduled to vote on the cost-cutting plan today, which looks to cut maintenance, repair and operating expenses while also granting 2 percent pay raises on average for the school's 1,200 employees.

Delaying Houck Stadium and Field House improvements would save $150,000 and would be the most visible of a series of budget-trimming moves, university President Dr. Ken Dobbins said Tuesday.

Southeast had planned to repair concrete sections of the football stadium and adjacent field house on Broadway and paint the gray concrete exterior walls of both, as well as replace windows in the field house.

The improvements are part of $5.28 million project that began with installation of a synthetic turf in Houck Stadium costing $750,000. Future plans call for a new locker room and new press box, both dependent on securing private donations.

The university last year looked at more elaborate plans that depended on raising $10 million to $12 million, but scaled back the project after a potential donor backed out, said Al Stoverink, the school's facilities management director.

Stadium will still stand

Don Dickerson, president of the board of regents, said he wishes the university could afford to paint the aging stadium and field house this year. "I'd love to do it, but Houck is going to stand whether we repaint it this year or next," he said.

"We are going to have to cut somewhere," said Dickerson. The regents, he said, want the administration to explain what repairs won't be made and equipment won't be purchased.

The regents in June held off granting paying raises because of concern about possible cuts in the university's state appropriation.

Earlier this month, Gov. Bob Holden announced he was withholding an additional 5 percent above the normal withholding for the state's public colleges and universities. Southeast officials were relieved the withholding wasn't higher, and the school's budget committee quickly recommended the pay raises be granted.

Dobbins supports the committee's recommendations. Dobbins said the university plans to save $1 million by deferring equipment purchases and trimming operations spending, $1.13 million by delaying filling job vacancies, and $35,967 because staff didn't get pay hikes in July.

Besides anticipated savings from cutting expenses, the university plans to receive $150,000 more in revenue because of higher than budgeted enrollment growth, Dobbins said.