REGENTS TO CONSIDER CAPITAL PROJECTS; STUDENT RECREATION CENTER, RECREATION FIELDS BEING CONSIDERED

Southeast Missouri State University expects to spend $8 million to expand the Student Recreation Center and upgrade the outdoor recreation fields.

The Board of Regents will consider approving the projects when it meets at 1 p.m. today at the Show Me Center.

Expansion of the Student Recreation Center would cost an estimated $5 million. Another $3 million would be spent on upgrading the recreation fields at Sprigg and Bertling, including installation of tennis courts, off-street parking and lighting, said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

The regents previously authorized site work to begin on the field improvement project. Dirt work is already under way at the site.

The university wants to issue bonds to fund the two projects. Student fees would be used to retire the bonds, Wallhausen said.

School officials also had proposed converting Parker Hall into a student union or commons building and moving academic department offices and classrooms into the University Center.

But the idea has been put on hold because legislative approval would be needed for the project to proceed, Wallhausen said.

The University Center is an auxiliary building that isn't operated with state funds. Parker Hall is an academic building supported by state funds.

Switching the uses of those two buildings would require legislative approval, school officials said.

In other action today, the regents are scheduled to consider obtaining a conceptual design for construction of a polytechnic institute even though the school has yet to secure state funding for construction of the building.

Southeast's two new regents -- Loretta Walker of St. Louis and Kimberly Mothershead of Benton -- will be sworn in at the start of the meeting.

The board also will consider submitting its fiscal 1999 operating budget request to the Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

The request includes $68.9 million in core program requirements and $4.7 million in other major funding needs.