Southeast gets ready to increase tuition

Students would pay 13.5 to 15.4 percent more in tuition and general fees for the fall semester, most of it to help fund salary increases for faculty and staff at Southeast Missouri State University as part of a $104.3 million budget for the new fiscal year.

The board of regents is scheduled to vote on the budget and fee plan today.

Even with fee increases, the school will need to cut $1.26 million in spending to balance the $79.2 million operating budget university president Dr. Ken Dobbins said on Thursday.

"We don't have enough revenue to balance the budget," he said, adding the university doesn't want to deplete its rebuilt reserve fund, which stands at $3.5 million after being nearly wiped out in the past two years by earlier state funding cuts.

Dobbins said the university would delay filling vacancies and cut equipment purchases to bring the budget in line.

In addition to the operating budget, the regents will be asked to approve a $25 million spending plan for the school's auxiliary services, including the Show Me Center and campus housing which rely on customer revenue to pay their expenses.

The regents will meet at 1 p.m. in Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium to vote on a budget that school officials say has been hard to draw up because of continued uncertainty over state funding, resulting from the lingering budget battle between the Republican-led legislature and Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. The new budget year begins July 1.

No choice

Don Dickerson, board president, said the regents have no choice but to increase student fees.

Dickerson said employees need a pay raise, and for many employees even a modest raise won't make up for the increased health insurance costs they are paying for family medical coverage. The annual cost to an employee for family coverage totals $5,880, an increase of $1,428 over the past two years, school officials said.

Employees didn't get pay raises last year because of tight state funding that forced the school to slash expenses and raise tuition just to pay the bills.

The new budget plan includes merit pay raises averaging 2 percent for university employees. Faculty and staff also would receive $500 across-the-board raises to help soften the blow of increased health insurance costs paid by employees, university officials said.

Faculty members said they're glad they'll be getting pay raises and welcomed a new pay plan that includes a fifth step on the promotion ladder that rewards longtime full professors with $4,000 pay increases.

Faculty members have to apply for the added promotion pay and meet academic and service requirements to get the money. They can receive such a pay increase every five years, if they meet the requirements.

Faculty who aren't getting the added promotion pay this year will receive 1.5 percent pay raises, school officials said.

"Dollars are how we show appreciation in our culture," said Dr. Allen Gathman, a biology professor who said he'll benefit from the new promotion pay raise.

Southeast faculty salaries had been slipping behind those at other schools, he said, which has made it harder to recruit and retain faculty.

Psychology professor Dr. Paul Lloyd, who chairs the Faculty Senate, said the pay plan should boost employee morale.

But business student Dave Merrill of O'Fallon, Ill., was dismayed by the plan to increase tuition which, he said, particularly hurts out-of-state students.

Those students will be paying $120 a credit hour more than in-state undergraduates.

Question on quality

Merrill said his grandmother is paying his college tuition, but he hates to see her have to pay out so much money. The cost to out-of-state undergraduates would increase by $37 a credit hour to a total of $280 a credit hour this fall in tuition and general fees.

"I don't feel like the quality of education for this school is worth as much as we are paying," Merrill said.

He also said he didn't like the fact that the tuition increase is primarily paying for pay raises. "That is kind of annoying," he said.

Tuition and general fees at Southeast have climbed from $89 a credit hour for in-state undergraduates in 1995 to $140.50 a credit hour last fall.

Tuition and general fees would increase by $19 a credit hour for in-state undergraduates this fall, bringing the cost to $159.50 a credit hour. In-state graduate students would see their fees go up to $187.20 a credit hour, a $22.70 increase per credit hour. Out-of-state graduate students would pay $332.40 a credit hour, an increase of $44.40 a credit hour.

The increased cost for all students would include a $1 increase in the school's general fee to help pay for the cost of equipping and opening a new South Campus Recreation Center in a former First Baptist Church building at 926 Broadway, school officials said. The fee is expected to generate $180,000 a year for the new recreation center.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123