REGENTS CUT $936,000 FROM BUDGET

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents Friday approved $936,000 in operating cuts designed to bring this fiscal year's budget in line with state funding reductions.

The budget changes at Southeast were prompted by recent state budget cuts made by Gov. John Ashcroft.

The governor vetoed 1 percent and withheld 5 percent of the state appropriation from Southeast.

Kenneth Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration at Southeast, said the university plans to make up the funding cuts through a hiring freeze, 3 percent across-the-board reductions in internal operating budgets, health insurance savings, transfer of $100,000 in fund balances from Southeast's telephone and printing and duplicating services, and a $50,000 cut in the athletic budget.

Dobbins said health insurance savings alone could total $250,000 to $300,000. The savings will come from changes that have been made in the university's health insurance plan, provided through an insurance consortium comprised of several state colleges and universities.

In other action, the regents awarded a $141,700 contract to Brown Construction Co. of Dexter for expansion of the Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

The project involves construction of three classrooms and a science laboratory. University officials said the project will be financed through private donations.

The city of Malden has contributed $50,000 and another $70,000 has already been raised through private donations, leaving only $20,000 to be raised, university officials said.

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation has agreed to provide the needed funding until such time as all the money has been raised.

In other business, regents renewed a one-year sublease agreement with the University Foundation for the Cottonwood Treatment Center in Cape Girardeau.

The facility was built by the university through the issuance of bonds. The facility is leased to the Missouri Division of Health, which pays rent to the university. The money is used to retire the bonds.

The regents Friday also approved new program options. The new options are a technology option designed to accommodate transfer students seeking an industrial technology degree, and sports medicine and health promotion options as part of a health management degree.

The regents accepted the administration's plan to discontinue the bachelor of arts degrees in biology, geography, earth science, and options in clinical dietetics and textile and apparel management.

Provost Leslie Cochran said the programs were no longer needed because of curriculum changes or the fact that few students were enrolled in such programs. Biology majors, for example, obtain a bachelor of science degree. There are currently no students seeking a bachelor of arts degree in biology.

The regents also approved changes in two academic degree program titles and a resolution honoring Thomas Lovett, who resigned recently as Southeast's dean of students to take a position as vice president for student services and university counsel at the University of North Alabama.