SEMO OKs tuition guarantee plan

Southeast Missouri State University will limit tuition increases under a plan approved Friday by the board of regents.

Southeast will guarantee that tuition for in-state undergraduates won't rise for the next four years by more than $400 annually for a typical academic year load of 30 credit hours. The new plan will take effect with the start of the fall 2007 semester.

With the guarantee, a student knows that he or she would pay $24,136 at most for four years of college.

The tuition cap could go up after the 2010-2011 school year, but students will know well in advance of any increase in the cap, officials said. Students from now on will know the maximum cost of tuition they could face over a four-year period.

"It is a guarantee so you can plan on it," Southeast president Dr. Ken Dobbins said prior to the meeting. The move, the first of its kind in Missouri, will help parents and students better budget for college expenses, he said.

The cap also could boost enrollment, he told regents during a telephone-conference call from a University Center meeting room.

"I feel the plan serves the students," said regent Christopher Davis of St. Louis, a nonvoting member of the board. "I think it can be a great marketing tool."

While the cap focuses on in-state undergraduate students, out-of-state students will benefit too, Dobbins said prior to the meeting. That's because their tuition typically is double the amount charged Missouri residents. So any limit on in-state tuition indirectly benefits out-of-state students, he said.

Dobbins said the $400 cap doesn't mean that the Cape Girardeau school will increase tuition annually by that amount. Historically, increases have been less.Over the past eight years, the average annual tuition increase has been just over $268 for a full-time student, school officials said.

Southeast has increased tuition by more than $400 only twice since the 1999-2000 school year.

The plan comes at a time when state lawmakers increasingly are looking at how to check rising tuition costs. Dobbins assured the regents that the guarantee plan is financially feasible even if the school experiences cuts in state funding.

The university, he said, could dip into its reserve fund to make up any revenue shortfall. To that end, Dobbins said, the university will work to boost its reserve fund from some $3 million to about $5 million.

Increased student enrollment would generate added revenue, some of which could go to build up the fund, the president said. Any increase in state funding for Southeast also could aid in building up the reserve, he said.

If the university faced a major cut in state funding, school officials would look at trimming academic programs, Dobbins said.

Southeast continues to rank low in fees compared to other four-year, public colleges in the Midwest, Dobbins told the board.

The cost of tuition for a Missouri resident to attend Southeast is $346 below the national average for public four-year institutions and $685 below the Missouri average, school officials said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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