SEMO lays out $450,000 in cuts

At least a few Southeast Missouri State University employees could lose their jobs, top academic officials will be shuffled into new roles and Parker Pool will close permanently if a cost-cutting plan announced by school president Dr. Ken Dobbins gets final approval next month.

More than 500 faculty, staff and students packed the university ballroom Wednesday while Dobbins outlined who and what would be jettisoned to save another $451,521 this fiscal year -- part of a $5.26 million total for the year -- to make up for deep cuts in state funding for the school.

The board of regents will consider the plan Oct. 18, and, with members' approval, some changes could start almost immediately after that meeting.

This year's earlier savings, which totaled $4.8 million, have come through a tuition increase, hiring delays, cuts in equipment purchases, deferred maintenance and elimination of some staff positions, mostly through attrition.

Wednesday's announcement came after a series of public forums. What was discussed earlier but did not make the plan: higher tuition or fees, involuntary furloughs for employees, elimination of programs or salary reductions. Dobbins said later the changes should be "transparent" for students, who actually could see better education when program heads displaced in department realignments are forced back into the classroom.

School officials insisted that few university employees will end up without jobs in the restructuring, designed to balance the operating budget and build up the school's depleted rainy-day fund.

Most of the dozen or so employees, who weren't disclosed by name, will be allowed to reapply for similar positions on campus. They were notified of the situation before the public announcement.

The plan includes academic restructuring.

Dr. Dennis Holt would be promoted from vice provost to vice president for administration and enrollment management, a job now held by Dr. Pauline Fox, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Dr. Fred Janzow, dean of University Studies, would head a combined school of university studies and graduate studies.

Dr. Phil Parette, the current dean of graduate studies, would go back to teaching full time in the College of Education. Parette would be taking more than a $20,000 cut in pay. But he said he started out as a faculty member at the university and doesn't mind returning to a teaching role. "That's where my roots are," he said. "The salary is not as big an issue for me."

Dr. Randy Shaw, dean of the School of Polytechnic Studies, will get increased duties that include overseeing the outlying higher education centers that Holt had been monitoring.

The administrative changes, including not filling an assistant vice-president position in student services, are expected to save $102,694 this fiscal year.

The biggest savings this year -- $139,000 -- would come from consolidating academic departments, which would eliminate several clerical positions and six department chairmanships and the $66,600 total in stipends that go along with them.

Frustrated workers

Many of the school's secretaries, the hardest hit in the plan, are angered and frustrated over the budget-cutting moves, said Dale Chronister, an administrative assistant who heads up the clerical, technical and service workers personnel group at the university.

Fourteen of the university's approximately 200 clerical workers will be affected by the restructuring of academic and non-academic departments, but nine will end up in new secretarial jobs. The other five can compete for the 13 clerical positions currently vacant, but there's no guarantee they will get those jobs, said Chronister, whose job isn't affected by the budget plan.

Clerical staff affected by the budget moves could end up being offered other secretarial jobs on campus, but those positions might pay less in some cases. The lowest-level secretary currently makes $6.50 an hour, Chronister said.

Not every affected secretary will want to go to work in a new department, he said. "I do believe there will be some that will leave," he said.

An unspecified number of part-time teaching jobs have been eliminated, and more are certain to be cut as the university puts more full-time faculty back in the classroom rather than handling non-teaching duties.

Pool closing permanent

Some workers jobs won't change, but their locations will. Parker Pool is slated to close, possibly by November, and the pool area will be transformed into a centralized printing and duplicating office.

Dobbins said the university would have to spend about $1 million to renovate the pool for continued use. The university plans to spend about $400,000 for renovations, which will allow for replacing the off-campus building on Fountain Street that currently houses the printing operation. That building was sold for parking for the Marquette Hotel renovation project.

Two other copy centers on campus would be consolidated into the printing and duplicating operation in Parker Hall.

The printing and duplicating reorganization would eliminate three positions by next spring.

Coupled with reductions in the university's wellness program -- which provides health screenings for employees -- Southeast expects to save $38,000 this year and more than $100,000 next year.

Dobbins also is recommending cutting $100,421 from the athletics budget this fiscal year and $40,000 in fiscal 2004. That's about $50,000 more than originally proposed. The savings include restructuring a Houck Stadium improvements loan so this year's payment can be used to help balance the university budget.

The moves -- coupled with other cost-saving moves implemented earlier this year -- would save an estimated $3.15 million over the course of the next full fiscal year, which begins July 1, school officials said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

RECOMMENDED POSITION CUTS

Elimination of the dean of graduate studies position through the merger of graduate studies and the School of University Studies, which handles the general education courses.

Elimination of vice provost position

A part-time secretarial position for the wellness program

Three positions in printing and duplicating

An academic advising position in School of Polytechnic Studies

A secretarial position and two department chairmanships in the College of Business as result of consolidating from five to three academic departments

A secretarial position and a department chairmanship from the merger of the sociology and criminal justice departments and the merger of anthropology and foreign language into another department.

A secretarial position and a department chairmanship from the merger of physical education with health and leisure

A secretarial position and department chairmanship from the merger of the administration of physics and geosciences departments

A department chairmanship from the merger of political science with philosophy and religion

Purchasing office employee

SOURCES: Southeast Missouri State University budget; interviews with school officials