REGENTS TO CONSIDER BUDGET PROPOSAL; UNIVERSITY TO SUBMIT REQUEST FOR $77.7 MILLION

If the Southeast Missouri State University administration has its way, the institution would operate on a $77.7 million budget next fiscal year.

That's the budget request that university officials propose to submit to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education for fiscal year 1994. That fiscal year begins July 1, 1993.

The university's Board of Regents will consider the budget proposal when it meets today at 10:30 a.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

The budget request would be used by the coordinating board in developing its appropriation recommendations for the governor's office, said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

The operating budget figure includes state revenue, as well as student fees and other income.

Wallhausen said the operating budget currently totals about $50 million, with the state funding about 60 percent of it or $30.5 million after withholdings.

If the state were to pick up a similar percentage share of the proposed $77.7 million budget in the 1994 fiscal year, state funding for Southeast would amount to about $46 million.

Wallhausen conceded that would be "a substantial increase."

But traditionally such budget requests to the coordinating board have always been higher than the subsequent funding approved by the legislature and the governor.

"What it represents is a blueprint for the future, and we hope not too distant future," said Wallhausen. "It is the list of program items which the university needs to carry out its mission.

"We feel that we have to tell the people of this state what it is that we feel we could and should be doing for the people of this region," he added.

The fiscal year 1994 request identifies 23 major needs of the university above the existing core of programs.

The needs include: creating the Missouri Center for Advanced Placement; more funding for the Bootheel Education Center; upgrading computer equipment used in academic areas; recruiting and retaining faculty in critical disciplines and minority faculty; and new investments in state-of-the-art equipment for such things as teaching of physics, life sciences, industrial technology and automated manufacturing technology.

Wallhausen said the budget requests are related to statewide goals formulated recently by the coordinating board's Task Force on Critical Choices for Higher Education.

"It is not something that we just pulled out of the air," said Wallhausen. "It is something that is related to a statewide need and our share of meeting that statewide need."

Among other things, the state~wide task force has called for strengthening the advanced placement program in Missouri.

Wallhausen said Missouri lags behind many states in terms of advanced placement.

The program allows students to take advanced courses in high school and then receive college credit for the work if they pass a national placement test.

Wallhausen said Southeast has been pushing advanced placement. The university has offered training for high school teachers to prepare them to teach advanced placement courses.

The Missouri Center for Advanced Placement would promote advanced placement and training for teachers on a statewide level, he said.

The budget request calls for spending $146,500 for creation and operation of the center for fiscal year 1994.

Southeast is seeking $357,000 in additional funding for the Bootheel Education Center at Malden and $2.7 million for upgrading the university's computers.

The purchase of state-of-the-art equipment for various science and technology classes would cost several million dollars, Wallhausen said.

In other action today, the regents will consider seeking bids for construction of a free-standing transmitter tower for KRCU, the university's public radio station.

Construction of the tower, estimated to cost about $40,000, is part of an ongoing plan to increase the station's broadcasting power and range. Private donations are being sought to help fund construction of the tower, Wallhausen said.

Other items include a review of the Student Recreation Center and housing system bond funds, and the official conferring of degrees upon summer graduates.

The regents are also expected to discuss the impact on Southeast of the higher education task force report. The task force was chaired by John Lichtenegger of Jackson.