REGENTS WILL CONSIDER FEE HIKE

The Board of Regents at Southeast Missouri State University will consider raising incidental fees when it meets Tuesday.

While the full, 1994 fiscal-year operating budget won't be considered by the board until June, Southeast's Budget Review Committee is recommending generally 4 percent increases in salary and benefits for university employees. The increase would be 5 percent for many faculty members, school officials say.

The regents will consider raising incidental fees by $5 for Missouri resident graduates and undergraduates and $10 for out-of-state students for the 1993-94 fiscal year, said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

Under the plan, resident undergraduates would see their incidental fees climb from $78 to $83 per credit hour. In-state graduate students would see their fees climb from $84 to $89 per credit hour.

Out-of-state undergraduates would see their fees rise from $142 to $152 per credit hour. Out-of-state graduate students would see their fees rise from $153 to $163 per credit hour.

For a Missouri resident undergraduate at Southeast taking 12 hours of classes, the cost would be $1,026 per semester, compared to the current cost of $966, Wallhausen said.

For out-of-state undergraduates taking the same class load, the cost would climb from $1,734 per semester to $1,854 per semester.

In-state graduate students taking 12 hours of classes would pay $1,098 per semester, compared to the current $1,038. Out-of-state graduate students would see their costs climb from $1,866 to $1,986 per semester, Wallhausen said.

But Wallhausen said most graduate students take less than the 12 hours of classes a semester. "Many take three, six or nine hours rather than 12 hours."

Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration at Southeast, said the increased fees would compare favorably with other universities in Missouri and the region. The University of Missouri-Columbia is raising its fees by $10 a credit hour, while Northeast Missouri State University students will see a $9-per-credit-hour fee hike.

He said Southeast's proposed fee hikes will help meet operating budget needs.

Dobbins said about $600,000 was cut from budget requests. Otherwise, he said, an $8-a-credit-hour fee hike would have been needed instead of a $5 hike.

Wallhausen said: "There are no big increases in anybody's operating budgets. I would say it is another tight budget year."

Both Wallhausen and Dobbins pointed out that the final budget won't be determined until the institution's state appropriation is determined by the legislature and approved by the governor.

"It is all very tentative at this point," said Wallhausen.

The proposed operating budget for the coming year is $52.6 million, about $2.3 million more than the current operating budget, Wallhausen said.

Of the $2.3 million, about half reflects increased salaries and benefits for the university's nearly 1,000 employees, Dobbins said.

Southeast's total budget is around $64 million when auxiliary operations such as the residence halls are taken into account.

Of the $52-million-plus operating budget proposed for the coming fiscal year, it's estimated about $31 million will come from the state appropriation, said Dobbins.

The remainder will come from local revenue, primarily student incidental fees, which are expected to total about $19.7 million next fiscal year. That figures assumes the regents approve the proposed hikes in incidental fees, which are expected to generate about $1 million in increased revenue, Dobbins said.

The $31 million state appropriation would reflect a 3 percent hike in this year's appropriation and a withholding of 4 percent by Gov. Mel Carnahan.

If he withholds the traditional 3 percent, that will mean another approximately $300,000 in state funding for the school, Wallhausen said.

Dobbins said the increased funding includes $250,000 for handicapped accessibility projects to meet federal requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act. It also includes $160,000 toward a long-term plan to reduce a deficit in the operation of the University Center, establish a repair and replacement fund and increase operating funding for the building.

The center has a deficit of $786,738. The problem started about 10 or 12 years ago, Dobbins said, and has since grown.

The budget stabilized for a while when the University Center bookstore sold computers to various campus departments. But after the state purchasing department prohibited such a practice, the deficit climbed again.

Dobbins said the university hopes to eliminate the University Center deficit over the next 10 years.

The center operates as an auxiliary service, but much of its revenue comes from the university itself, which pays for use of the center, he explained.

The proposed university operating budget also includes funding for upgrading the computer system on campus at a cost of $75,000 a year for three years.

Another $200,000 would be earmarked to increase the university's fund balance. The balance has gone from a deficit last year to a surplus of $45,000 this year. But Dobbins said that's still too small.

The University of Missouri-Columbia, he pointed out, has a $19 million fund balance. "We think we should be somewhere in between." Dobbins said he would like to see Southeast's operating fund balance at between $1.5 and $2 million.