REGENTS TO CONSIDER PLAN TO RESTRUCTURE UNIVERSITY DIVISION

The Board of Regents at Southeast Missouri State University will consider a plan to restructure the university's student affairs division when it meets Thursday.

The board will convene at 12:30 p.m. in the University Center Party Room.

In other business, the regents will consider rescinding the incidental fee prepayment plan, a change in the institution's installment payment plan, a revision of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation bylaws, and bids on three projects weatherization of Kent Library, roofing on the Group Housing complex and repairs to a pump in the power plant.

Caryl Smith, interim vice president of student affairs, proposed the restructuring plan, which calls for greater coordination of services.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the plan has the backing of university President Kala Stroup and the institution's Administrative Council.

Plans call for hiring a new vice president of student affairs. "Ideally, we would have someone on the campus before the start of the fall semester," Wallhausen said Tuesday. "It is apparently a pretty tight timetable to get that done in that length of time."

Wallhausen said the university has already started advertising the vice president position.

Whoever is hired will have a lot to say on the restructuring effort, he said. "The key is to attract a first-rate, knowledgeable professional who knows both the enrollment management side and the student affairs side."

Under the restructuring, student affairs would involve two major units student development, including health and international student services; and enrollment development.

New-student relations and admissions and records units that deal with enrollment would be put under control of the student affairs division.

The plan also calls for setting up a student assistance center in an effort to make it easier for students to obtain information and assistance from the various student-oriented services on campus.

Currently, Smith has said, there is no central coordination of many of these services, which are spread out in various campus offices.

Wallhausen said no decision has been made on where the assistance center would be located on campus. "It will be partly up to the new person to structure this."

It's important to have coordinated student services, he maintained. "There needs to be some organization on campus that is responsible for the student ... from recruitment through career placement."

The restructuring would allow for a simpler chain of command as far as the university president is concerned, Wallhausen said. "Her (Stroup's) reporting lines are a little more clear when you just have one person reporting to you rather than two or three."

As to the prepayment item, Wallhausen said the plan, which has been in effect since 1987, allows a student to pay his or her incidental fees up front.

Under the plan, a student pays the first two years of fees at the start of his or her freshman year and then the last two years of fees at the start of the sophomore year.

The advantage of such a plan is that students can lock into a set incidental fee structure. "It was designed originally to stabilize fees," said Wallhausen.

But only one student is currently on such a payment plan. "It requires a pretty good size investment to pay all of your fees for two years all at once," said Wallhausen.

Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration, has proposed eliminating the prepayment plan.

Wallhausen said Dobbins has reviewed the university's finances. "It is one of the things he has identified as not needed.

"It's apparently not serving a need and there is some (financial) hazard to the university if people did take advantage of it," noted Wallhausen.

He said the prepayment plan would remain in effect for the lone student involved in that payment program.