SEMO board sets budgets, outlines improvements for Show Me Center

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents on Thursday approved its operating and auxiliary budgets for fiscal year 2015-2016, along with high-priority items for the Show Me Center.

The board approved a $106.7 million operating budget and a $36.9 million auxiliary budget. Auxiliary budgets are self-supporting operations that do not receive state funding. They also have to generate revenue to cover their expenses.

When the university's Budget Review Committee and president Kenneth Dobbins developed the fiscal year 2015 budget, it assumed a 4 percent increase in state funding, which equated to $1.7 million. Gov. Jay Nixon signed House Bill 2003 that included a 5 percent bump for higher education, meaning $2.15 million for the university. However, Nixon withheld that money earlier this week.

Because Southeast was conservative in its budgeting, it faces a $1.7 million shortfall, which it plans to make up by raising tuition by $3.50 per credit hour and generating an estimated $620,000.

Vice president for finance and administration Kathy Mangels said part of the shortfall also will be made up from fund balance and delaying raises for faculty and staff. Those raises were supposed to take effect July 1 but will not be implemented until Sept. 1. Southeast has between 1,000 and 1,100 faculty and staff.

Mangels said Southeast tries to keep at least 10 percent of its operating budget aside "just for times like this."

The merit pay salary increases will be 2.5 percent for administrative/professional staff, clerical/technical/service staff, bargaining units and graduate assistant stipends. Also included in the deferred increases is a faculty base merit salary bump of 2.1875 percent.

A 0.3125 percent salary pool to fund post-professorial merit increases and a 20 percent rise of the overload and part-time faculty compensation levels also is in the budget.

Post professorial merit is a voluntary additional step in the merit process approved by regents in October 2002. Under the bill, faculty become eligible to apply for post-professorial merit five years after reaching full professor. They may repeat the process during their fifth year after any previous successful application. Successful applicants must meet the same criteria as required for promotion to professor and follow the same process of peer and administrative review.

"We'll use that combination of fee revenue and one-time dollars and just keep assessing as the fiscal year goes on," Mangels said, saying the university faced a $827,000 withholding this fiscal year.

On the Show Me Center, regents approved $8,189,220 in renovations, from seat replacement and parking lot improvements to exterior lighting replacement. Convergence Design of Kansas City, Missouri, and a team of consultants are working on the project.

Based on construction schedules, high-priority projects totaling $5,622,000 will be completed in summer 2015, with the remainder being finished in summer 2016.

Mangels said the majority of the work would take place during those summers because that's when the Show Me Center arena and building are used least. "At this point, we would take summer of 2015 and summer of 2016 off of the schedule. We would not schedule events in the arena during those two summers," Mangels said.

Opened in 1987, the center is a venture of Southeast, Cape Girardeau and the state. Home to Southeast's Division I men's and women's sports teams, it serves as a venue for everything from monster truck and car shows to big-name concerts, private events and meetings.

Because what's in the building is original, parts for certain items such as the seating are not available, and the scoreboard uses incandescent bulb technology, which is not energy-efficient and is outdated.

Projects planned and their cost amounts are:

* Seating replacement, $2,112,000, for fiscal year 2015-2016. The building's retractable seating is original to the building.

* North parking lot renovations, $1,103,220, are planned for fiscal year 2016-2017. It will be done first because it's in the worst shape, officials said. The east and south parking lots and Show Me Center drive would be future projects. Cost for the east parking lot and Show Me Center Drive is $453,870, plus $40,920 for the south parking lot.

* Roof replacement would cost $852,000 and is slotted for fiscal year 2015-2016. In addition, the estimated cost of replacing the Student Recreation Center roof is $516,000.

* Scoreboard system upgrade in fiscal year 2015-2016 would cost about $1,422,000.

* Sound system replacement would be an estimated $840,000 in fiscal year 2015-2016.

* Sports and house lighting replacement, $396,000, fiscal year 2015-2016.

* Meeting room makeover, $636,000, in fiscal year 2016-2017.

* Exterior lighting replacement, $288,000, fiscal year 2016-2017.

* Fall arrest system upgrade. Safety features for people, who, for example, work on the catwalk of the Show Me Center; 108,000, fiscal year 2016-2017.

* Rigging grid upgrade, $432,000, fiscal year 2016-2017. This would reinforce structural connections on trusses. Mangels said there are some acts the center can't accommodate because of its lack of load capacity. Some performers have been forced to leave equipment on their trucks.

* Elevator replacement, $96,000, future projects.

* Restroom renovations, $600,000, future projects.

* Marquee sign upgrades, $108,000, future projects.

Remaining projects on the high-priority list will be re-evaluated with updated cost figures after the first two phases are complete.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

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