Regents OK renovations, new credit-card fees

During Thursday's board of regents meeting at Southeast Missouri State University, it approved renovations to several campus buildings, new policies pertaining to complaints of sexual misconduct and to charging new fees for credit-card payments.

The lengthy agenda, encompassing Thursday and today, is necessary for the board as it looks to work with university president Kenneth Dobbins before his retirement in June.

During the morning session, the board approved allowing the university to charge a 2.5 percent fee on credit-card transactions.

Kathy Mangels, the university's vice president of finance and administration, said the fee is necessary because of the cost the university has incurred by allowing students to pay by credit card. In the past year, the university paid about $380,000 in fees primarily to credit-card companies on about $21 million in accounts-receivable transactions.

The change, which takes effect in May, will allow the university to charge 2.5 percent on payments made by credit card on amounts less than $2,000 and $50 on payments higher than $2,000.

Recent changes in credit card fee regulations make the board's approval permissible. Mangels said Southeast's negotiated 2.5 percent rate is 0.25 percent lower than comparable universities.

During the afternoon session, the board approved seeking architectural services for renovations that could be done during the next few years at Kent Library, Pacific and Cheney halls and the Grauel Building.

A committee of administrators, board members and others gathered information for the proposal, which included walk-through tours and surveys on the best uses of those spaces.

As proposed, programs held in the International House -- an older house on campus that contains offices -- could be moved to a renovated first floor of Cheney Hall. The International House, which has maintenance issues, would be taken offline, Mangels said.

Renovations to the Grauel Building, officials said, would benefit the English Department by creating larger classrooms, address space needs in the Mass Media Department and give more clinic space to Communication Disorders that would help the department prepare for reaccreditation in 2018.

At Pacific Hall, renovations would create more space for offices, study areas and classrooms associated with the Intensive English Program.

Renovations at Kent Library could make better use of space on the third and fourth floors. Plans for renovations will continue to develop and change as architects work through possibilities, officials said.

The renovations, Mangels told the board, are not the kind that could be finished over a summer. They are large enough that the university needs plenty of time to plan them in conjunction with others in progress or planned around campus.

Funding sources for the projects have not been identified, but there are several possibilities, officials said. The projects have an estimated time frame for completion of 2016.

Also, the board approved changes to policies that deal with compliance for Title IX and, separately, to nondiscrimination business policies.

Recent attention to handling of sexual assaults by universities prompted a review of compliance at Southeast with the federal anti-discrimination law. The university asked attorneys to review its policies, according to officials, and they suggested Southeast establish a policy outlining the university's responsibilities.

The new policy, in part, separates procedures for responding to reports of sexual assault for students and employees. It also brings the entire university under the Title IX umbrella. In addition to students and staff, it prohibits any form of discrimination, including harassment and sexual misconduct, by visitors to campus.

The board also passed a campuswide nondiscrimination policy on sexual orientation and gender identity which, according to a faculty senate representative, was long advocated.

During board sessions today, a branding initiative and a strategic plan draft will be considered for approval.

eragan@semissourian.com

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