SEMO HALTS EARLY RETIREMENT PLAN

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents canceled the university's early retirement program Thursday because the plan violates federal age-discrimination laws.

The action came during a closed-door meeting of the regents.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said board attorney Joseph J. Russell advised that recent additions to federal law defining age discrimination place the existing Southeast plan out of compliance.

Although the regents dropped the plan, they directed the university administration to attempt to negotiate acceptable individual retirement arrangements with the 16 employees who have applied for early retirement for the 1993 fiscal year.

But the board said any such agreements must be made within budget and legal constraints, and take into account the needs of various university programs.

Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration, said the university will begin immediately the task of trying to work out suitable early retirement agreements.

Wallhausen said such agreements will probably provide the retiring employees with less of a benefit package than was contained in the early retirement program.

Wallhausen said, "The board will not be receiving any more applications under the present plan.

"No decision has been made as to whether to adopt another plan in the future or whether to do it on an individual basis," he said Thursday afternoon.

"Because of the budget problems the board didn't see any way to adopt another plan at this point," he added.

Wallhausen said the early retirement program violated federal age-discrimination laws by not allowing people over 62 to participate. But without such an age limit, it would be too costly to offer such a retirement program, he said.

The positions of the 16 people who would retire early, if arrangements can be worked out, will probably not be filled for the immediate future, Wallhausen explained.

As a result, he said, there would be some financial savings for the university.

"When you are downsizing, this is one way of doing that," said Wallhausen. "It is a way to do it with a minimum disruption of people's lives."

In other action in closed session, the regents adopted a conflict-of-interest policy as required under state law.

The policy statement, drafted by Russell, defines conflicts of interest and states that members of the university community have a "duty to be free from the influence of any conflicting interest" or the appearance of a conflict of interest when they act on behalf of the university.

In open session, the regents approved a new summer fee schedule.

The regents, without comment, voted to put the fees on strictly a per-credit-hour basis as recommended by the administration.

The new summer-session fee will be $74 per credit hour for Missouri undergraduates regardless of the number of hours taken, university officials said.

For non-resident undergraduates, the fee will be $134 per credit hour. Missouri graduate students will pay $80 per hour and non-resident graduate students will pay $145 per hour.

This past summer, fees were $69 per credit hour for Missouri undergraduates taking one to eight credit hours of courses. It reached a plateau of $602 for those taking nine to 12 hours. Above 12 hours, the cost was $35 per credit hour.

Dobbins said the new summer fee schedule should bring in between $25,000 and $75,000 in additional revenue.

The regents also approved a resolution honoring Robert Foster, the university's executive vice president who is retiring Dec. 31 after more than two decades in administrative positions with the university. He served as the 13th president of Southeast during the 1989-90 academic year.