REGENTS AGREE TO EXPANSION AT MALDEN CENTER

The Board of Regents at Southeast Missouri State University voted Thursday to move ahead with expansion of the Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

The board, meeting in the University Center Ballroom, authorized university officials to advertise for bids for construction of a physics-chemistry laboratory and three classrooms at the Bootheel Education Center.

Robert Foster, Southeast's executive vice president, said the project is expected to cost about $160,000, which includes the cost of equipment.

The center currently has eight classrooms, but no science lab.

University officials said additional classrooms are needed because of growing enrollment.

Since the center opened in the spring of 1988, enrollment has climbed from 150 to over 800, university officials said.

The center is housed in a former Pepsi-Cola bottling plant. Harry L. Crisp, a Southern Illinois soft-drink executive, donated the 100,000-square-foot structure and the surrounding 23 acres to the university in 1987.

The center is operated by a consortium consisting of Southeast, Three Rivers Community College at Poplar Bluff and the University of Missouri Extension Division.

Foster said, "The Bootheel Education Center continues to be one of the really exciting things going on in Southeast Missouri."

Foster said the center attracts students from throughout the Bootheel and down into Arkansas. "We had one student come down from Cape Girardeau to take a course."

He attributed the center's success to the support of the region. "The true bragging rights belong to the people of the region."

The city of Malden has contributed $50,000, which will meet the cost of constructing the science lab. The rest of the cost will be met largely through donations, Foster said.

Southeast's regents praised the center. Regent Lynn Dempster of Sikeston said, "We hear so many good things (about the center)."

But Regent Mark Pelts of Kennett said that despite the center's success, some Bootheel residents are still unaware of the existence of the educational facility.

In other business, university officials said steps are being taken to cut the institution's operating budget in light of the governor's vetoing and withholding of $936,000 in funding for Southeast.

"Needless to say, this is going to be very difficult to do," said Southeast President Kala Stroup.

She said she hopes to bring a balanced budget to the regents in August.

Kenneth Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration at Southeast, said a hiring freeze is being implemented and the university's divisions will have to absorb 3 percent across-the-board operating budget cuts.

Both Dobbins and Stroup said that with a hiring freeze, vacant positions will remain unfilled. Said Stroup, "This will have an effect on our services and on our personnel, and it will have an effect on our workload here."

Carl Ben Bidewell, president of the Board of Regents, expressed dismay over the state funding cuts.

"I'm sure it's disappointing to the board and I know it's disappointing to a lot of our faculty," said Bidewell.

On another matter, Stroup said faculty members have expressed concern about last month's decision by the regents to adopt a merit pay plan that excludes across-the-board pay hikes.

She told the regents that she met with faculty Wednesday to discuss the concerns. About 100 faculty members attended that meeting.

"There are considerable concerns," she told the board. She indicated faculty members, through the Faculty Senate, would likely respond to the board's action at a later date.

The regents did not respond to Stroup's remarks, which came right before the conclusion of the public session of the meeting.

At last month's meeting, the regents said they didn't think across-the-board pay raises should be a part of any merit plan.

The across-the-board pay raise provision was contained in a proposed merit plan that was drafted by the Faculty Senate and supported by the university administration. But the regents eliminated that provision in approving an amended merit pay plan.