Proposed tuition, housing hikes going before regents

Southeast Missouri State University students, saddled with hefty tuition increases in recent years, would pay a maximum of $4 more a credit hour next school year in tuition under a proposal to be voted on by the board of regents today.

The regents -- who will meet at 10 a.m. in the University Center Ballroom -- also will consider increasing room and board charges for the coming academic year, as well as raising Web course fees by $3 a credit hour for the next school year and an additional $3 a credit hour for the 2005-2006 year. The resulting fee for computer-based classes would total $10 per credit hour.

The board also will vote on a plan to renovate the University Center in stages, starting this summer and wrapping up by the summer of 2005 at a cost of $550,000 to $600,000.

Southeast plans to move its textbook rental service to Kent Library, freeing up space on the second floor of the University Center that will be turned into a "student organization complex" with office and meeting room space for student organizations.

Some changes will be made to the University Center lobby and a new Normal Avenue entrance would be constructed, school officials said.

Don Dickerson, president of the board of regents, said the renovations -- to be funded from a debt service fund reserve -- will transform the University Center into a true student union.

Dickerson said it's more cost effective to remodel the University Center than to build a whole new student center elsewhere on campus.

As to the proposed tuition, school president Dr. Ken Dobbins called it a "modest increase." The proposal is in sharp contrast to double-digit increases in the past few years that occurred as the university coped with state funding cuts.

Southeast proposes to reduce the tuition increase if it receives more than the $41.5 million state appropriation recommended by the Missouri House.

Keeping costs down

Dickerson said the promise to lower the increase if warranted is "a gesture to the fact that we have always tried to keep the cost of education down as much as we can."

The university can keep the tuition increase to a minimum because it has already made the hard decisions, Dickerson said. Those included reducing expenses by cutting and restructuring academic programs, reducing academic and non-academic positions, and deferring maintenance.

Even with a $4-per-credit-hour increase for the 2004-2005 academic year, Southeast would remain one of the most affordable, four-year public colleges in Missouri, Dobbins and Dickerson said.

Southeast's tuition last fall was lower than Central Missouri State, Southwest Missouri State, Truman State and the University of Missouri campuses in Columbia and St. Louis, officials said.

"It's a lot better than people had hoped," said Adam Schaefer, Student Government president at Southeast.

Lower than other schools

A senior at Southeast this year pays $1,185 more in tuition and mandatory fees than he or she did as a freshman in the 2000-2001 school year. Even so, Southeast's 35 percent growth in tuition during this period is the third lowest among Missouri's 13 four-year public colleges.

Southeast officials hope that keeping the tuition increase to a minimum will boost enrollment.

Setting tuition and room and board charges this early in the spring semester will help students better budget their finances for the next school year, Schaefer said.

"It is a huge benefit," he said. "Students will have a better idea of how much it will cost."

Under the proposal, per-credit-hour tuition and general fees would total $162.50 for in-state undergraduates and $282 for out-of-state undergraduates. In-state graduate students would pay $189.90 a credit hour while out-of-state graduate students would pay $333.80 a credit hour.

The regents will vote on raising room and board charges by 1 percent for the next school year. Students would pay an average of $3,507 for campus housing and $1,833 in meal charges.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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