REGENTS TAKE ACTION TO MAKE UP SHORTFALL

The Board of Regents at Southeast Missouri State University responded Friday to $942,000 in new state budget withholdings with an equal combination of new revenue and cost reductions.

In presenting a plan to the regents, Kenneth W. Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration, noted, "There is no way we could have forecast this latest 3 percent cut."

In August, the university had to make $936,000 in cuts as the result of vetoes and withholdings from the state budget, due to the tight financial condition of Missouri this fiscal year.

Dobbins said mid-year budget cuts are difficult to implement and will hit the institution hard. The increase in textbook rental fees and tuition included in the revenue component of the plan will also place a hardship on students and parents because they had anticipated fees staying the same until next fall.

"This has gone through many committees and through discussion with many folks," said Dobbins, in explaining how the plan was developed.

"Fee increases are not a popular thing any time, especially at mid-year, but we are a victim of circumstances," Dobbins declared.

The regents voted to increase incidental fees by $5 per credit hour. For fulltime undergraduate students, resident fees will increase from $1,033 to $1,103 and non-resident fees from $1,903 to $1,973.

Fees for fulltime graduate students will climb from $1,120 to $1,190 for residents and from $2,060 to $2,135 for non-residents.

A fulltime undergraduate student would see textbook rental fees for the semester increase from $35 to $45.

The increases take effect for the spring semester and will continue next summer. Fee increases will generate approximately $400,000 and the textbook rental increase will bring in $60,000.

Several regents asked whether the university would be better off imposing surcharges, rather than fee increases to make up for state withholdings. But university President Kala Stroup noted that most universities are making the surcharges permanent and they amount to fee hikes.

Another concern of some regents was what student reaction was to the proposed increases. Dobbins said he had met with a group of student leaders from various organizations on campus and let them choose the combination of textbook fees and tuition increases they preferred to generate the additional revenue.

Steve Nenninger, the student regent, said he thinks most students understand why fees are being raised. He admitted that students are not pleased with the increase and some will have hardships meeting the increases costs, but said in general the plan was acceptable to students.

Dobbins said the university would cut $250,000 in expenses by reducing budget carryovers from Fiscal Year 1991. These are funds that were not used in last year's budget that departments had been planning to use this year. Instead, the funds will be applied to current-year needs.

Another $100,000 will come from continuation of a control of job positions and hiring freezes. The current policy at Southeast is to hold all vacated job positions open for three months before filing them, unless it is deemed an essential position by a special committee.

Dobbins said 51 positions on campus have been affected by this policy. He noted that there have been no layoffs yet and that is something the university wants to avoid if at all possible.

Stroup added that wherever possible, positions have been combined and that part time employees have been reduced considerably.

Reducing summer session costs by dropping classes that have only a small number of students enrolled should save $100,000 under the plan.

A final $50,000 is projected in savings through a combination of energy conservation measures, such as "sweater days" when the temperature is kept low; raising fees for summer camps and programs to insure that all actual costs are recovered; and shutting down most of the university for a 16-day period from Dec. 21 through Jan. 5.

In closing the campus over the holidays, all employees on a 12-year contract, including administrators, will be required to use three vacation days.

Among the other items considered Friday, the regents approved an education compact with Jefferson College in Hillsboro; heard a report that 93 percent of the University's $25 million "A New Vision of Excellence" capital campaign had been raised; and were advised in a report on the Outcomes Assessment Program that Southeast juniors and seniors in the University Studies Program are performing better than the national average.