MORE IN AREA SHOULD ATTEND COLLEGE, SAYS STROUP

Too few people in the region attend college, Southeast Missouri State University officials say.

University President Kala Stroup told the Board of Regents Tuesday that the school wants to encourage more area residents to pursue a college education.

University officials are requesting $357,600 in state funding for fiscal 1996 to expand the federally funded Trio programs, which seek to encourage minority and high-risk students to enroll in college.

Over a three-year period, Southeast has received $1.68 million in federal funds for the programs. But there is a need to expand them, Stroup said.

Nine of the 10 Missouri counties with the lowest level of college attendance among the adult population are in the university's service area. Seven of the 22 Missouri counties with the lowest percentage of high-school graduates are in the school's service region.

Twenty-six percent of Missourians 25 or older don't have a high-school diploma. In Southeast Missouri, the percentage is 37.7 percent.

Sixteen counties in the service area aren't served by a community college.

Southeast officials want to expand the school's pre-admission summer program to strengthen the academic skills of disadvantaged students and supplement the academic offerings of high schools that currently don't offer the core curriculum.

The university's proposal is part of a $65.97 million operating budget request for fiscal year 1996, which the regents agreed Tuesday to submit to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education. The move is the first step in developing next year's budget.

The budget request includes $58.5 million in basic program requirements and $7.5 million in what school officials describe as "major needs."

Those needs include $2 million for computers and other state-of-the-art equipment for Southeast's industrial technology, physical science and life science programs.

The school is requesting $1.95 million in added funding for the core budget, including 3 percent increases for wages, operations and equipment.

In other business, Stroup said Southeast will hold a series of public hearings throughout the region this fall. The hearings, part of a process to develop a strategic plan for the school's future, are tentatively scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 26-30.

Stroup proposed holding hearings in Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville, Kennett, Malden, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Farmington and Perryville. She suggested the hearings be held over three consecutive days.

But after hearing from the regents, Stroup said the schedule would be revised. "There is nothing magic about it," she said.

Regent Don Dickerson said he would prefer to space the hearings over several weeks. Dickerson, who has strongly advocated such hearings, said the university also should hold at least one session in St. Louis.

Regents will be attending the hearings. Stroup said the public will be invited to attend the "listening forums," along with community and chamber of commerce leaders and local educators in the various towns.

School officials want to develop a clearly defined mission for the university and determine how the institution can better serve the region.