LOSS OF BUSINESS BUILDING FUNDS DISAPPOINTS UNIVERSITY LEADER

Southeast Missouri State University President Kala Stroup expressed disappointment Monday over legislative inaction that killed any chance for immediate construction funding for the institution's proposed business building.

Stroup said the institution will have to start over, lobbying for funding for the $15 million College of Business Administration building. Any possibility for state funding will now have to wait until next year's legislative session.

"We will start immediately trying to determine how we can continue to make our case," said Stroup. "We will have to go back through the entire process again."

The project has been the university's top capital improvements priority for several years. The institution had pushed hard to secure construction funding in this legislative session.

Southeast officials say the university needs a single business building. The business school is currently housed in several campus buildings, including a converted apartment building.

Stroup said the construction project is also important in efforts to secure national accreditation for the business school.

Preliminary architectural plans have already been drawn. Plans call for constructing a 100,000-square-foot business building near the New Madrid and Henderson intersection on the northwest end of the campus.

"We are disappointed at the university because basically this is the third year we significantly worked on it and we had support of the chambers of commerce from throughout the whole Southeast Missouri service region," said Stroup.

She said the project also had the support of area legislators and university alumni.

The university had raised $2.8 million to help fund the project. But even that wasn't enough.

Stroup said the legislative roadblock came down to a disagreement over funding methods.

Last Friday, a House-Senate conference committee failed to reach agreement on a method of funding construction projects for Missouri's public colleges and universities.

Stroup said there was disagreement over a plan to issue revenue bonds and impose a state sales tax on interstate long-distance telephone calls to retire the bonds.

Southeast had a "fall-back" plan, but that too failed to win legislative backing.

Under that plan, the Southeast Missouri University Foundation would have issued bonds to fund the project, with the state making a commitment to retire the bonds over a 15-year period.

Stroup said that the plan called for the state to pay $860,000 a year to help the university retire the bonds.

The university president said she hopes state funding for the project won't be delayed more than a year.

"I think it is important to have a College of Business building. That is kind of symbolic of the fact that we have a very good College of Business," said Stroup.

Ultimately, she said, Missouri needs to make some decisions about how to adequately fund education.

"There just isn't any money," said Stroup. "There just isn't any state revenue, and the representatives and the senators do the best job they can."

And until a new funding plan is put in place for elementary and secondary schools, funding for higher education will take a back seat, said Stroup.