REGENTS INCREASE DORM RATES

Southeast Missouri State University students will be paying more to live on campus next fiscal year.

The Board of Regents Wednesday hiked room and board rates for the 1993 fiscal year. The action came upon the recommendation of the university administration.

The regents, meeting at the University Center, also changed admission requirements and approved changing the name of the earth science department to that of geo~sciences department.

The new rates, which will take effect with the beginning of the fall semester, will amount to an 8 percent increase in fees for the average Southeast student and put room and board charges in the range of $3,000 a year, university officials said.

Officials said the increase in fees is needed to offset projected expenses for operation of the residence halls.

But student regent Steve Nenninger, a non-voting member of the board, expressed concern about the rising room and board charges.

"As the room rate continues to go up, I believe more students will move off campus," he said. "I think it is going to make more juniors and seniors think about moving off campus," he said.

Freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus unless they live at home. But there is no such requirement for juniors and seniors, Nenninger said.

The new room rate will increase from $1,785 to $1,985 a year, based on double occupancy. Students who want a room to themselves will have to pay an additional $600 instead of the current $500 surcharge. Such single rooms are offered on a space-available basis, university officials said.

At $1,985, the cost amounts to around $200 a month for students during the school year, Nenninger said. A typical dormitory room would house two students. So, combined, the two students are paying $400 a month for housing, he said.

At that rate, off-campus housing poses an attractive alternative for students, said Nenninger.

Board charges will be increased by $20 to $60, depending on the meal plan. The university offers five-, 10-, 15- and 20-meal plans. Students in the coming fiscal year will pay from $740 to $1,100 in board charges.

Combined, room and board charges will cost students from $2,725 to $3,085, based on double occupancy. This year the cost ranges from $2,475 to $2,825.

Most students who live on campus get the 15-meal plan. For them, room and board charges combined will increase by $220, from $2,745 to $2,965.

In all, expenses for the office of residence life, which covers the dormitory operations, are expected to total more than $7.3 million in the coming fiscal year.

Room and board fees would generate $6.5 million in fiscal year 1993, based on the current 77 percent occupancy rate, budget figures for the office of residence life show. Meals-only charges, summer fees and other revenue sources would provide the remaining funding to pay for expenses, according to budget figures.

Regent Mark Pelts questioned if the university could increase its occupancy rate by charging less for room and board.

University President Kala Stroup acknowledged there will always be competition from private housing. But she said, "We think residence halls are more than just simply having a place to eat and sleep." The university provides certain programs and activities for students that live on campus, she said.

She said that when she arrived on campus in 1990, Southeast had seen residence-hall occupancy decrease by 1,000 students over three years. Part of that, she said, was due to an enrollment decline.

But Stroup said part of the problem was that the residence halls were "run down" because there was not sufficient room and board revenue to pay for needed improvements and repairs.

The occupancy rate has improved since then, but Stroup said the university needs to spend $5 to $6 million to renovate the residence halls. Southeast, however, doesn't have the money to do that, she told the regents.

"We're walking a very fine line," said Stroup, explaining that Southeast must try to keep room and board charges at a reasonable level to keep the occupancy rate high while at the same time it must have revenue to spruce up the residence halls.

As to the new admission requirements, the regents added a third course in mathematics and a unit in visual or performing arts to the list of courses high school graduates must take in order to be admitted to the university.

In addition to the new core curriculum requirement, high school graduates must make a score of at least 18 on the ACT college entrance examination and achieve a high school grade-point average of 2.0 or better.

Southeast officials said the new admission requirements take effect in 1995 at Southeast, and similar requirements are expected to be in place at all public colleges and universities in Missouri by 1996.

By the 2001 academic year, a third unit of science will be added to the core curriculum requirements.

There will be some conditional admissions at Southeast, but such admissions will be limited to no more than 10 percent of the entering class, university officials said.

Applicants who are over 21 years of age and who have been graduated from high school for at least three years may be admitted on somewhat different criteria, university officials said.