REGENTS WILL STUDY WAYS OF FIXING SEMO BUDGET

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents will consider operating budget cuts totaling $936,000 when it meets Friday.

The regents will also consider bids for expansion of the Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

The board will meet at 1 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the university must scale down its budget because of state funding cuts made by Gov. John Ashcroft.

The university must operate with a net state appropriation of $29.84 million for the 1992 fiscal year, or nearly $1 million less than the $30.7 million in state funding that had been anticipated by university officials.

Wallhausen said university officials are proposing to scale back budget operations through a hiring freeze, 3 percent across-the-board reductions in internal operating budgets at the university, and health insurance savings.

Also included are a $50,000 reduction in the athletic budget and the transfer of $100,000 in fund balances from Southeast's telephone service and printing and duplicating service.

Wallhausen said the $100,000 comes from money that was being saved for equipment replacement.

The hiring freeze is expected to save the university $250,000 to $300,000 in expenses and the across-the-board internal budget cuts are expected to save another $300,000, Wallhausen said.

"The hiring freeze is a selective hiring freeze and a slow down in that you take as long as you can to fill the positions," he explained.

He said Southeast hopes to save about $250,000 through possible changes in the university's health insurance plan. Southeast's health coverage is provided through an insurance consortium comprised of several state universities and colleges.

Wallhausen said the consortium is in the process of making changes that could result in reduced premiums.

The budget cuts, he said, will result in "a shrinking" of the services offered by Southeast.

"The hiring freeze puts an extra burden on existing staff; service suffers," pointed out Wallhausen.

"Not only is it tough this year, but this comes after a period of six or seven years where this has been a regular occurrence.

"You get to a point where it is very hard on staff morale, with one person doing two or three different jobs," he said.

Wallhausen said Southeast has slightly over one support person for each faculty member. Southeast has about 400 full-time faculty members.

In contrast, he said, the University of Indiana has over three support people for each faculty member.

On top of the budget cutbacks, university employees have essentially taken a pay cut because they didn't receive pay raises this year, while the cost of living has increased, Wallhausen said.

University officials earlier this summer asked Student Government leaders for a transfer of about $6,500 in student funds to help meet operational expenses at Southeast.

Student leaders subsequently talked of offering up to $11,000 in student funds provided that university officials agreed to address a variety of Student Government concerns, ranging from student day care to textbook rental.

At this point, no agreement has been reached with Student Government leaders and the university administration is not planning to utilize student funds to help address the funding woes, Wallhausen said.

Facilities to be added at the Malden center include a science laboratory and four classrooms. Private donations will be used to pay for the addition.

Other items on the regents' agenda include the operating budget request for the 1993 fiscal year, several changes in academic programs and program titles, and discontinuance of three degree programs and two program options.