REGENTS APPROVE FEE HIKES

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents approved a number of fee hikes Thursday and eliminated several scholarships.

The financial moves were included in the nearly $50 million operating budget for the 1993 fiscal year, which was adopted by the regents.

In all, student fees are expected to generate more than $18.3 million in the coming fiscal year, with about $18 million of that coming from tuition charges. Earlier this year, the regents approved incidental fee hikes.

On Thursday, the regents increased the admission-application processing fee from $10 to $20; raised the textbook rental fee from $9 to $12 a course and removed the $45 per semester fee cap; inaugurated judicial fees to pay some of the costs of the judicial affairs office, which deals with student discipline problems; and increased incidental fees charged to high school and international English preparatory students for college courses, from $10 to $20 a credit hour.

In addition, the regents eliminated fee waivers for employees' spouses taking classes at Southeast and raised the $3 per credit hour charge to employees to 10 percent of in-state fees for undergraduate courses and 30 percent for graduate courses.

At the new rates, employees taking college courses this fall will pay $8 a credit hour for undergraduate courses and $25 per credit hour for graduate courses, university officials said. The regular charges are $78 a credit hour for undergraduates and $84 per credit hour for graduate students.

Senior citizens, who previously could enroll in university courses at no charge, will now be charged the same rate as university employees, under action taken by the regents Thursday.

Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration at Southeast, told the regents that at $3 a credit hour as compared with the regular tuition charge, the university this year waived $195,000 in fees for 90 employees and spouses.

Dobbins said the $3 fee was established years ago when incidental fees were $9 a credit hour.

"You can only give away so much," University President Kala Stroup said of the fee changes.

"When you give away so much then it puts an additional burden on our students," she pointed out.

All of the fee changes take effect this fall, with the exception of the admission application fee, which will be implemented in the summer of 1993.

The admission fee hike is expected to generate an additional $40,000, university officials said.

The textbook rental fee hike and the elimination of the fee cap will raise an additional $180,000, of which $65,000 will be used to offset the projected deficit in the operation of textbook services. The remaining $115,000 will be used to offset increased scholarship costs, Dobbins said.

Elimination of five types of scholarships will result in a savings of nearly $57,000.

Stroup said the scholarships being eliminated are ones that were financed with student fees and state appropriations.

Privately funded scholarships have continued to grow, so elimination of some scholarships should not pose a hardship for students, university officials indicated.

One of those being eliminated is the Chemistry Bowl scholarship.

The regents' action came despite an appeal from Bruce Hathaway of the chemistry faculty, who asked the regents not to drop the scholarship. He said he didn't know the scholarship was going to be eliminated until he read about it in the newspaper.

University officials said a scholarship can still be awarded as part of the Chemistry Bowl, but that it would be a different scholarship, such as a Regents' or President's scholarship, and the recipient would have to meet the other academic criteria.

In other action, the regents approved plans to construct the Marvin Rosengarten Athletic Complex in three major phases at a total cost of $650,000.

The project involves expanding the football services building to include a new weight room, sports medicine facilities and office space, university officials said.

Construction of the first phase could begin in July 1993, with the final phase commencing possibly in July 1995 or 1996, they said.

The project is to be funded with money from the university's capital campaign.

The regents also voted to seek proposals from physicians to provide limited services at the campus clinic. University officials are seeking to have a doctor on campus at least 12 hours a week when classes are in session.

In other business, the regents approved a name change for the university's academic services division. It will now be the academic affairs division.

The regents hired the accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand to conduct the annual university audit for the fiscal year ending June 30. It will cost $31,600.

In an organizational move, the computer science department was removed from the College of Business Administration and placed in the College of Science and Technology.

Scott Giles of Jefferson City was sworn in by Circuit Judge A.J. Seier as the new student regent.