SEMO details possible budget cuts

LOOKING TO SAVE $3.5 MILLION

By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

Southeast Missouri State University officials are proposing more increases in student fees, reductions in building maintenance, permanent elimination of vacant positions and termination of at least one employee this summer in an effort to make it through a financial crisis caused by cuts in state funding.

Dr. Ken Dobbins, university president outlined the possible cuts and fee increases in separate meetings Friday with the Budget Review Committee and the Faculty Senate.

Spending cuts this summer could be just the start of more extensive budget-tightening moves this fall.

School officials plan to take a hard look at consolidating and restructuring academic departments, moves that could lead to the elimination of a college dean and several secretaries by early next year.

Dobbins said restructuring can't be done immediately. "We will have to evaluate things in September and October," he said.

School officials said the university may have to cut staff positions in its wellness and employee training programs.

A female staff member's job in the University Advancement office, which houses alumni and university foundation services, will be eliminated. Efforts currently are under way to negotiate a termination agreement with the employee, said Alan Zacharias, vice president of university advancement and head of the school's fund-raising foundation.

Zacharias said the restructuring, which included the recent moving of a secretary to a different university office, will trim $30,000 in expenses and put more money into fund-raising activities.

Finding money

Campuswide, Dobbins wants to generate $5 million through budget cuts and fee increases. Two million dollars would go to balance the school's fiscal 2003 budget. Another $2 million would replenish the school's rainy day fund, which has been wiped out by state spending cuts. The remaining $1 million would cover possible further cuts in state funding, Dobbins said.

Cost-cutting moves would save about $3.5 million, school officials estimated. That includes $180,000 from involuntary furloughs should they be necessary.

Payments from the school's telecommunications services and other self-supporting auxiliary services on campus could generate $300,000 in additional money for general operations at the university.

The rest -- more than $1 million -- would come from new student fees and fee increases.

School officials propose to raise tuition by $6 a credit hour for the next school year, an increase that would come on top of an already record fee increase adopted by the regents in April.

In-state students could be paying more than $140 a credit hour in tuition and general fees this fall or $23 more a credit hour than they did this past semester.

Ross McFerron, Student Government president, serves on the Budget Review Committee and voted with others on the committee to recommend the fee increase to the regents.

McFerron said the increases in fees are inevitable. The university, he said, already is having to make tough cuts.

"There will be layoffs," he said. "People will lose their jobs."

Art Wallhausen, associate to the president, said restructuring could lead to the termination of five to a dozen employees in fiscal 2003. School officials also are considering furloughing some employees.

Taking time off

Southeast already is encouraging employees to take voluntary furloughs this summer and may consider an early retirement program as well to lower personnel costs.

School officials also want to cut university funding for family medical benefits.

The Board of Regents will consider the budget-balancing moves when it meets on June 12 to approve the university's fiscal 2003 budget.

Dobbins told the Faculty Senate on Friday that the school also is considering an early retirement program. About 30 members of the Faculty Senate attended the meeting. They declared by voice vote that the university is in a "financial emergency," a move that clears the way for school officials to fire faculty or other employees, if necessary, to cut costs.

Southeast already has been forced to cut expenses this past year, Dobbins said.

"We've already cut $876,000 permanently," he said. "You can see that everybody shared in the pain."

The state over the past 12 months has cut over $765 million in state spending for fiscal 2002, including $286 million budgeted for higher education.

Southeast alone has seen cuts of more than $7.1 million including $4 million in state funding for May and June. To help makes ends meet, the university has wiped out its $2.9 million rainy day fund. It has also deferred hiring and equipment purchases, moves that will continue into the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

More than a dozen vacant positions, including two physical therapy faculty positions and a financial aid coordinator, are being permanently eliminated, Dobbins said.

Southeast also is looking to replace retiring tenured teachers with term-contract teachers who aren't seeking tenure. Such new hires typically are less costly, saving the university money, school officials said.

Rick Althaus, a political science professor on the Faculty Senate, isn't thrilled about such a move. But he said it's understandable as a temporary budget-cutting move.

While widespread layoffs aren't on the horizon, Althaus said faculty and staff are worried about job security at the school.

"I think there is significant concern," he said. The budget uncertainty will lead some faculty to take jobs elsewhere, Althaus said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123