SEMO looks to raise fees, impose laundry fee

Southeast Missouri State University's regents will vote Monday on a proposal to increase student fees ranging from tuition to campus housing, and impose a new laundry fee.

Even with increases, say university president Dr. Ken Dobbins and student government president Adam Hanna, students will pay less at Southeast than at other four-year universities in Missouri and the region.

The regents are scheduled to meet at 9:30 a.m. at Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium.

Dobbins said the laundry fee of $35 a semester will actually save students money. Students use a card-swipe system that debits their accounts at the rate of $2.25 to wash and dry a load of clothes in the residence halls.

Under the new fee plan, a student could wash and dry one load of clothes each week of the semester for $2.19 and any additional loads for free, school officials said.

The plan also would eliminate the need for the equipment to read the cards. Such equipment is costly to maintain, Dobbins said.

The school administration wants to raise tuition by $9 a credit hour for in-state undergraduates and graduate students and by twice that rate for out-of-state students for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Students also would pay increased general fees, much of it going to upgrade nearly 50-year-old science labs in Magill Hall over the next several years; and higher room and board charges.

The university wants an added $2 a credit hour in general fees to fund building renovations and repairs in the coming school year. Under the plan, the fee would go up by another $2 a credit hour in each of the following two school years.

Starting this fall semester, an in-state undergraduate taking 12-credit-hours of classes would pay $2,214 in tuition and general fees, an increase of $156.

In addition, students living on campus would pay an average of $5,764 for room and board, a 3.1 percent increase with most of that coming in higher room charges.

Hanna, the student government president, said the university had no choice but to propose fee increases to cover rising expenses.

"I really think we are doing the best we can to keep the costs down," he said. "Our students are getting a great value here."

Dobbins said Southeast's tuition and general fees this fall will be lower than other schools such as the University of Missouri, Missouri State, Central Missouri State, Truman State University and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

"We're still the most affordable school around," Dobbins said.

The university must increase tuition to help pay rising expenses including health insurance and fund pay raises for faculty and staff, he said.

Southeast expects to receive $875,000 more in state funding in the next fiscal year, but that would still fall short of the estimated $1.2 million needed to continue current operations, Dobbins said.

Increased tuition would allow the university to give pay raises amounting to about 3 percent for each of the employee groups.

Most faculty would receive pay raises of at least 2.25 percent, but some would receive much more as a result of promotion in rank, Dobbins said.

The merit pay plan rewards deserving faculty, he said. The university doesn't increase salaries across the board. "We have some faculty who don't get any pay raise," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123