REGENTS FACE GOOD, BAD NEWS; FUND GOAL NEARS, FEE HIKES LIKELY

For the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents, Friday's board meeting will be both a good news and bad news affair.

Good in that the university's capital campaign is closing in on its fund-raising goal; bad in that the regents will consider a plan to cut costs and raise fees in the wake of a $942,000 reduction in Southeast Missouri State University's appropriation for fiscal year 1992.

The board will convene at 1 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. The meeting is open to the public.

Jim Limbaugh, who heads the university's "New Vision of Excellence" capital campaign, will report to the regents on the progress of the fund-raising effort.

Limbaugh said Tuesday that the capital campaign has raised $23.2 million in gifts and pledges, or 93 percent of its $25 million goal.

The campaign was publicly launched in September 1990. The university began the campaign with $12 million in gifts and pledges.

"We've raised in gifts or pledges $11.2 million in one year," he pointed out. "It shows the tremendous amount of generosity from the people that have been associated with the university, that have somehow been touched by the university," said Limbaugh, a Cape Girardeau banker.

"We will continue our calling effort locally through the remainder of the calendar year and we have started the telephone campaign," said Limbaugh.

The telephone campaign is expected to raise from $750,000 to $1 million by the time it ends on June 30.

"If we can raise $1 million, then we are at $24.2 million," he said.

"We will continue our calling effort for major gifts up through June 30 of 1992," explained Limbaugh.

Plans call for the entire capital campaign to be completed by June 30.

"We are very optimistic that we will have not only achieved but exceeded our goal by that time," he said.

"The capital campaign became even more important to the university in terms of its funding when the additional round of budget cuts came as a result of the school desegregation case in Kansas City," said Limbaugh.

In all, about $71 million is being cut out of the state budget, including $942,000 in state funding for Southeast.

As part of the capital campaign, the university hopes to raise $1.6 million for athletic facility improvements, primarily construction of an athletic complex to house all athletic services and sports medicine facilities, Limbaugh said.

The campaign so far has raised about $900,000 toward the complex. Limbaugh said fund-raising efforts are now focused on securing the additional money needed to construct the building.

"We really are emphasizing the athletic complex during the fourth quarter of this calendar year," he said.

As to the budget balancing moves, they include a proposed $5 per credit hour increase in incidental fees effective in January. Textbook rental charges would also go up $2 per course under the proposal. The moves are designed to offset the effect of Gov. John Ashcroft's withholding on Oct. 1, of 3 percent of funds for state agencies.

At their last meeting in August, the regents approved a plan to cut $936,000 from the university's planned expenditures. The new cut is in addition to the August reduction and brings to $1.88 million the amount vetoed or withheld from the 1992 appropriation for Southeast that was approved by the Missouri General Assembly.

Other action items on the agenda include a preliminary design for the proposed College of Business Administration building and a contract with Sverdrup Corp. for further planning of that facility; the preliminary financial audit for the 1991 fiscal year; an education compact with Jefferson College in Hillsboro; and a proposed agreement with Union Electric Co. for a power line to serve the new Division of Youth Services community treatment center on the Southeast campus.

The regents are also scheduled to hear reports on student recruitment, minority recruitment and retention, outcome assessment, university advancement and academic services.