MURRAY EXPANDS DISCOUNTED TUITION

Murray State University in Kentucky will expand its discounted tuition program for students from Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee.

The tuition break already makes it difficult for Southeast Missouri State University to attract Southern Illinois students, said Juan Crites, Southeast's admissions director.

The state of Missouri prohibits state universities from offering discounted tuition to out-of-state students.

In the fall of 1994, Southeast had 553 students from Southern Illinois. If Southeast could offer discounted tuition as Murray does, it would have many more, Crites said.

"The national statistics tell you 85 percent of students will go to school within 150 miles from home," Crites said.

But Southeast can't really draw from a 150-mile radius, she said, because half of it is in Illinois. "That is really a problem for us," Crites said.

The Board of Regents at Murray last week expanded the tuition discount while at the same time hiking fees and tuition for the 1996-97 school year.

The board extended the discount in Tennessee along a corridor stretching south to the Mississippi state line and including the Memphis area.

The board also added St. Charles County, Mo., and Marion County, Ill., to its list of incentive-grant counties.

In all, Murray discounts tuition for students from 64 counties in Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee and Indiana.

"Originally it started out as a 100-mile radius, but we have extended beyond that because of the demand of students who want a tuition break, and, of course, it helps increase our enrollment too," said Phil Bryan, dean of admissions at Murray.

This fall, 818 of Murray's 8,166 students are paying the discounted tuition. Of the 818, 737 are undergraduates.

Students have to meet certain academic requirements and live on campus in order to qualify for the discount rate.

Tuition at Murray will increase 3.6 percent for undergraduate in-state students, from $840 to $870 a semester next fall. The cost is based on students taking a full load of 12 credit hours.

That would still be less than the current in-state tuition of $1,312 a semester at Southeast.

Undergraduate out-of-state students at Murray will pay $2,610 next fall, a $90 increase. But students who qualify for the tuition discount will pay $1,000 less or $1,610, Bryan said.

In contrast, out-of-state tuition at Southeast this fall is $1,938 a semester for a student taking 12 credit hours.

While the Murray regents endorsed the tuition hike, they had little say in the matter.

Tuition increases at public colleges in Kentucky are set by a state board. There are three tuition structures, one for community colleges, one for regional universities like Murray, and a third for the state's two doctoral-granting institutions.

Bryan said the tuition hikes are tied to increases in per capita personal income of families.

Murray's regents, however, do control other fees,

The regents hiked room charges 4.6 percent and food service charges by 3.6 percent for the 1996-97 year.

Currently, a student at Murray pays about $1,500 a semester to live and eat on campus.

At Southeast, room and board costs about $1,800 a semester for students living in the unrenovated Towers dorms.