Lawsuit- SEMO violated rules on funding

Southeast Missouri State University wrongly participated in the state's A-Plus scholarship program, which was designed to pay tuition only for students attending community colleges and vocational schools, Three Rivers Community College alleges in a lawsuit against the Cape Girardeau school.

Three Rivers officials, angered by Southeast's decision last month to bar the Poplar Bluff-based school from teaching courses at three higher education centers beginning this summer, responded by filing a nine-count suit against the university in Butler County Circuit Court on Wednesday. The community college has asked for over $25,000 in damages as well as unspecified punitive damages.

One point in the suit alleges Southeast president Dr. Ken Dobbins diverted $2 million in state mission enhancement money earmarked for the learning centers and used the money to support educational services on the Cape Girardeau campus.

On Friday, Southeast officials said they still hadn't seen the full lawsuit.

Both Dobbins and the university's attorney, Joe Russell of Cape Girardeau, declined to comment on the litigation.

Typically, Southeast would have 30 days to file in circuit court a written response to the lawsuit, Russell said.

Among other things, Three Rivers wants the court to order Southeast to refund or reimburse all state A-Plus funding it received. The lawsuit doesn't give an amount.

"We don't know how much money it is," said Poplar Bluff lawyer Paul Kidwell, who represents Three Rivers.

As of October, 24 students enrolled at Southeast were receiving A-Plus funding, university officials said. But Kidwell said the state legislature never intended for four-year colleges to participate in the A-Plus program.

"It is not something we should have done in the first place," he said. "We need to get out of it."

A-Plus state funding has flowed to Southeast through Three Rivers under an agreement between the two colleges dating back to 2000.

The commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approved of the arrangement, the lawsuit states.

But that approval came at the same time that Willard Worts, then the director of the A-Plus program, said the program wasn't intended to serve students taking college classes from four-year institutions, the lawsuit alleges.

However, the current director, Jocelyn Strand, said her office is strictly responsible for sending the money to community colleges and vocational schools to pay the tuition of students.

Any plan to pass the money on to a four-year school is a contractual matter between the two schools involved, she said. Southeast is one of three four-year public colleges in Missouri that has such an arrangement, Strand said.

The A-Plus program, which cost the state more than $12.5 million in the past fiscal year, covers tuition for eligible students for up to six semesters. A total of 14,000 students participated in A-Plus between July 2003 and June 2004.

Other accusations

Other counts in the lawsuit accuse Southeast's board of regents of a breach of contract over operation of the higher education centers in Sikeston, Kennett and Malden. It also alleges Southeast's action violated a consortium agreement on providing services in the region involving the two schools and the University of Missouri.

The suit asks the court to require Southeast to comply with those agreements, including the one in which Three Rivers agreed to pay rent to Southeast for classes it taught at the centers.

Three Rivers paid nearly $51,000 to Southeast last fall in rental charges. But Southeast argued that Three Rivers owed another $10,421.

Three Rivers insists it didn't owe the money, and Southeast used that as an excuse to cancel the partnership.

The suit seeks a court injunction barring Southeast from removing Three Rivers classes from the education centers, hiring away Three Rivers faculty and enrolling Three Rivers students in Southeast lower-division classes.

Three Rivers officials also charged in the suit that Southeast wrongly contacted students and Three Rivers faculty in an effort to recruit them away from the community college.

The suit accuses Southeast's regents of seeking to limit the ability of Three Rivers to provide freshman and sophomore courses in the region.

The lawsuit, although not in a specific count, also alleges Southeast regents violated the state's open meetings law in their closed-door meeting on Feb. 16 in which the decision was made to remove Three Rivers classes from the centers.

Kidwell said the regents should have taken action in open session or made a public announcement of the decision right away rather than keeping the action secret for more than a week.

The litigation comes as Missouri higher education commissioner Dr. Gregory Fitch continues to try to work out an agreement between Southeast and Three Rivers to end the dispute.

"I think we need to continue to move ahead regardless of the outcome of any lawsuit," Fitch said.

Fitch met in Sikeston earlier this month with both school presidents in an effort to resolve the dispute.

The two sides came away with a tentative agreement in which Southeast and Three Rivers would have split the cost of operating the three centers. In addition, Three Rivers would teach 60 percent of the lower-level courses and Southeast would teach the other 40 percent.

But issues over student services such as financial aid and class registration have yet to be resolved.

Neither school's governing board has approved the proposed agreement, Kidwell said.

Three Rivers officials now say they're unlikely to accept a 60-40 split of classes.

"As far as we are concerned, it is off the table," Kidwell said. "The only possible way that I could have seen that the board of Three Rivers would have even considered a 60-40 split was if Southeast had stopped its efforts at recruiting faculty and students."

Southeast officials have said the university is losing $800,000 annually in operating the centers in Sikeston, Kennett and Malden. The plan to take over teaching all the classes at the center was designed to generate more revenue for Southeast to meet expenses, Dobbins has said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123