SOUTHEAST REGENTS TO CONSIDER NEW BUDGET

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents will consider approving a $52.4 million operating budget for fiscal year 1994 when it meets Tuesday.

The regents will meet at 10 a.m. in the Harry L. Crisp Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

The proposed operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is about $2 million higher than the current budget.

Personnel costs for the year are budgeted at $38.07 million in salaries and benefits, plus $1.23 million to pay students who work on campus.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the budget does not include auxiliary services such as the residence halls.

The operating budget revenue includes $19.8 million in student fees and $30.8 million in state funding, Wallhausen said. The remainder is comprised of miscellaneous revenue such as facilities rental and summer camp charges.

This year's state appropriation for general operations totaled nearly $31.8 million. But the 3 percent withholding by Gov. Mel Carnahan reduces that amount by $953,637, leaving the university with net state revenue of $30.8 million, Wallhausen said. That amounts to about a $350,000 increase over last year's net appropriation, he pointed out.

The budget figures don't include the $712,000 allocated to Southeast for maintenance and repair projects. That money was actually included in the general operations appropriation this year rather than as a separate appropriation as in years past, Wallhausen said.

Since it's all lumped together, the withholding is being applied to the maintenance and repair money as well as funding for general operations, he explained.

As a result, Southeast will end up with about $690,000 to spend on maintenance and repair projects. One of the major projects involves exterior repairs to the Scully Building at an estimated cost of $270,000, Wallhausen said.

While funding for maintenance and repair projects has been put into the overall state appropriation, Wallhausen said the university feels "duty bound to spend it" on what the legislature and the governor felt it was being appropriated for.

"Apparently in the distant past it was done like this," said Wallhausen, referring to combined capital and operating appropriations.

In other business, the regents will consider submitting a nearly $25 million funding request to the state for capital improvements for the 1995 fiscal year. The funding request includes $12.7 million for Southeast's top priority construction of the College of Business Administration building.

The board also will look at changing the academic calender for the fall semester eliminating the Friday fall break in October and extending the Thanksgiving break by one day. Instead of a Thanksgiving break beginning on Thursday, the break would begin on Wednesday, and run through Sunday. The move would be effective with the start of the fall 1994 semester.

As to the budget, Wallhausen said Southeast is really "standing still" in terms of its state appropriation when one factors in inflation. "That's why fees are going up," he said.

"I think it is a disappointing level of state support," Wallhausen said of funding for Southeast and Missouri's other public colleges and universities.

"We understand the reasons for it," he said. "We understand there is great competition for limited dollars, and there was a need to solve the elementary and secondary schools funding issue this year."

Wallhausen said, "When increases in state appropriations don't even equal the cost-of-living increase, you either reduce quality or find another source of revenue.

"What has happened not just at Southeast but throughout the state is that public, higher education is becoming a more expensive commodity," said Wallhausen.

"Whatever increase we have in our budget, other than the $350,000 (increase) in state appropriation, has come from internal reallocation and increased student fees," he said.