SOUTHEAST EYES HARD DECISIONS

With the defeat of Proposition B and a continued squeeze in state funding, Southeast Missouri State University officials say they will have to make some tough budget decisions in the coming years.

After budget cuts and withholdings, Southeast is currently operating with $28.9 million in state funding for the 1992 fiscal year, the lowest its been in several years. And university officials don't expect to see any improvements in state funding for the institution or higher education in general for the 1993 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"On this campus, we expect the budget process for next year to be a painful one," university President Kala Stroup said in a memo to faculty and staff on Nov. 7, two days after the defeat of the tax-and-reform measure for education.

"There is expected to be little, if any, additional revenue in the state's coffers, and this year's cuts in the Southeast appropriation were handled, in part, by one-time cost savings, which will not be available in Fiscal 1993," she wrote.

Budget cuts and withholdings already have reduced state appropriations to Southeast this year by more than $2.8 million.

University officials had said that Proposition B could have brought the school an added $9 million annually in funding, including money for student scholarships.

In the two-page memo, Stroup discussed the defeat of Proposition B and the funding crunch.

"The opportunity was a great one for Missouri, for education, and for Southeast Missouri State University, but there were powerful emotions among the general public that polls did not measure, and which the voters expressed with a vengeance.

"The analysts in the media have listed plenty of reasons for the defeat, and there are elements of truth in what has been written and said.

"The bill was complex. There was mistrust of politicians. Elementary and secondary education statewide was not united in its support of the proposal," wrote Stroup. "Anti-tax sentiment was strong, and was exacerbated by the economic recession."

Said Stroup, "Now everyone in higher education and at Southeast Missouri State University must work together to figure out how to operate with limited means over the coming difficult years."

Increased state funding, she said, seems unlikely. "At the state level, we will certainly continue to promote measures to enhance the funding of higher education, but it appears that no major relief is now on the horizon. There seems to be no mood on the part of government officials to seek higher taxes," she wrote.

As to future budgets for Southeast, Stroup said that the university "must subject everything we have been doing as an institution to careful scrutiny in the light of the political and fiscal realities, and determine together how best to use limited resources during the next decade."

Stroup said she doesn't anticipate wholesale layoffs, but she added the administration will look at not filling vacancies where possible.

The death of Ed Spicer, for example, has left an administrative position associate to the president vacant. Spicer died Oct. 30 of an apparent heart attack.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the university currently has a hiring freeze and the duties Spicer handled are now being handled by various administrative personnel, deans and department chairpersons.

Wallhausen said the university has reduced staffing levels through attrition. The number of full-time faculty members has declined from 420 a few years ago to around 380 today, he said.

A reduction in faculty positions, both full and part time, means that some classes will have to be consolidated and class offerings reduced, he said.

"We are planning to revise the budget review process this year," said Wallhausen, explaining that it will involve much more extensive review of university programs and class offerings.

The budget process will begin in January, he said. "I think the process is going to be much more lengthy than in the past, much more detailed."

Among other things, the funding process will involve assessment of how many students are enrolled and graduate from various academic programs at Southeast, he said.

Southeast, like other universities in the state, will also have to consider the possibility of continued tuition hikes, he said.

"I think everyone wants low tuition, but the question is how do you pay for a quality institution without the (state) resources," said Wallhausen.