SEMO BUDGET PROPOSES PAY HIKES OF 13%

Thirteen percent pay raises for faculty and staff head the list of budget priorities at Southeast Missouri State University for the 1994 fiscal year.

The Board of Regents Thursday agreed to submit a $77.7 million budget to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education. The action is one of the first steps in the lengthy state appropriation process for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 1993.

The operating budget figure includes state revenue as well as student fees and other income. State funding currently amounts to about 60 percent of Southeast's operating budget.

The proposed budget for next fiscal year includes a core budget of $54.3 million, which reflects the cost of existing operations.

On top of that, the budget calls for additional expenses of $23.4 million to pay for 23 identified needs.

As was the case last year, heading the list of needs this year is one calling for a 13 percent pay increase for faculty and staff. University officials estimate such a pay raise, as well as increased funding for equipment and library acquisitions, would cost $6.6 million.

The salary goal was not reached the current fiscal year; faculty received pay raises of 5.8 percent and staff around 4 percent.

University President Kala Stroup said 13 percent pay raises are needed to bring salaries to the median level of salaries nationally for employees of public, comprehensive institutions.

"The first priority, of course, is to maintain and enhance the institution," said Stroup.

"As you well know, the salaries are low," Stroup told reporters following the meeting. "In order to keep the brain power, you must continue to pay them," she said.

Stroup said the goal at Southeast is not to provide the highest pay scale but rather one that is competitive with the national average.

None of the regents voiced concern about the pay-raise goal during the Thursday morning meeting at the University Center.

But after the meeting, Board President Carl Ben Bidewell of Poplar Bluff said he didn't view salaries as the top funding priority.

"I'd say that is a priority," he said. But he said he didn't put a lot of emphasis on the individual ranking of the 23 needs in the budget proposal.

The regents said that state lawmakers and the governor will end up approving a smaller budget than what has been requested.

"I think we should make it very clear that that is our wish list," said Regent Don Harrison of Cape Girardeau. "There will be changes in the final budget."

Of the university's budget request, Bidewell said, "No doubt, that will be cut."

Stroup said university officials don't know at this point what the state revenue picture will be like next year.

Without new state revenue, there won't be new programs, she said.

Stroup told reporters after the board meeting that Southeast receives $7 million to $8 million less in state funding than called for under the formula by which funding is determined for the state's public colleges and universities.

The formula is based on the missions of the schools and their enrollments, programs and physical plants, she said.

Stroup said the university's budget priorities tie in with statewide education goals as drafted by a task force of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

Creation of a Missouri Center for Advanced Placement ranks as the second priority on the university's needs list.

The proposal calls for establishing a center at Southeast to promote the growth and development of advanced placement statewide. The program allows students to take advanced courses in high school and then receive college credit for the work if they pass a national test.

New investments in state-of-the-art equipment for life sciences and other courses, at a cost of several million dollars, are also included in the budget package.

Other priorities include: $2.7 million to upgrade the university's computer equipment; $761,600 for recruitment and retention of minority faculty; $357,000 in increased funding for the Bootheel Education Center at Malden; $731,200 for computer equipment to facilitate academic outcomes assessments; $692,000 to raise student success rates by establishing a model internship program and expanding educational partnerships; $203,000 to establish a center for creative and critical thinking, which would focus on faculty and program development; $169,500 to improve the Center for Earthquake Studies; and $138,330 to meet federal handicapped accessibility requirements.

In other business, Stroup said the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, the university's fund-raising arm, received more than $1.92 million in cash gifts in the just-completed 1992 fiscal year, a record amount. The cash gifts amounted to a 34 percent increase over last year's donations and a "raw dollar" increase of $491,420, Stroup said.

She also told the regents that voter approval Tuesday of a constitutional amendment earmarking lottery revenue for education won't actually increase funding for public schools and colleges.

"What we will only be doing is shifting the source of dollars," Stroup said.

In other action, the board authorizing the taking of bids for construction of a free-standing transmitter tower for KRCU, Southeast's public radio station. The project, expected to cost $40,000, is part of a plan to boost the station's power and broadcasting range.

The regents also accepted audit reports on the Student Recreation Center and campus housing revenue bond funds.

Deborah Blumenberg, an employee of Southeast since 1976, was named as the secretary for the Board of Regents. Blumenberg has worked as executive secretary in the provost's office since 1984.