UNIVERSITY HOLDS LINE ON ROOM CHARGES

Southeast Missouri State University's administrators have scrapped plans to raise room charges for most campus residence halls in the face of opposition from student leaders.

"I feel like for once somebody listened," said Jeff Davis, Student Government president. "I think it shows that if enough students stand up and act then obviously things can be accomplished."

"We are trying to be much more responsive to the students and to listen to them," said SueAnn Strom, vice president of student affairs.

The revised room rates don't mean, however, that students won't be paying more to live on campus the 1994-95 academic year.

The university is looking at a new food service contract. The board charges, which have yet to be finalized, could well increase, student leaders say.

School officials are also proposing to hike tuition by $2 a credit hour, which would generate about $400,000 in added income. The incidental base right now is $83 a credit hour.

Davis said that even with the increase Southeast students will be paying less than their counterparts at many of Missouri's four-year schools.

Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, for example, is raising its tuition to $120 a credit hour, he said.

Southeast officials also want to replace fees for the Student Recreation Center and student-activity and student-athletic fees with a single $4-per-credit-hour general fee.

The proposed tuition hike, general fee and room charges are expected to be considered by the Board of Regents when it meets March 31.

The fee proposals were outlined by administrators at a meeting of the university's student senators Monday night. Student senators endorsed the general fee proposal.

The university's Administrative Council has already signed off on the general fee proposal and Tuesday it passed the proposed tuition hike and room charges on to President Kala Stroup.

Under the revised room fees proposal, students in Greek housing, Cheney, Dearmont and the unrenovated Towers residence halls would pay the same room charges for the 1994-95 school year that they currently pay.

Myers Hall residents would experience a 4.5 percent hike, which would amount to a $100 increase in room charges.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said that when Myers Hall was renovated several years ago the room charges were not increased for that facility because the university was operating at that time on a single-rate structure.

"It is a much nicer facility than anything else on campus except for Towers West," which is undergoing extensive renovations, said Wallhausen.

Students living in the remodeled Towers West next academic year would pay $3,500 for a single room, $2,900 for a double, $2,700 for a suite double (four students) and $2,600 for a triple room.

Wallhausen said most of the living units in the renovated high-rise building will be suites.

In contrast, students in the unrenovated Towers buildings would still pay $2,120 per person for a regular, two-person room.

In conjunction with the revised room charges plan, two of the four wings of the aging Dearmont dormitory would be shut down. "By closing the two wings down they will save an estimated $93,000 to $94,000," Davis said school officials have indicated.

The building, which is not air conditioned, currently isn't used to full capacity as student housing. Since last summer part of the lower level of Dearmont has been used to house residence life offices.

A week ago university officials proposed raising room rates at all of the residence halls except Dearmont. That elicited protests from student leaders.

Wallhausen acknowledged as much: "Students had a negative reaction to the first proposal."

Davis said ever-increasing room-and-board charges were prompting more students to move off campus.

"When I was a freshman there was a waiting list to get into Myers and now they have vacancies," he said.

"Part of it is the declining enrollment," he said. But he said a major reason is that students are "smart enough to realize it is cheaper to live off campus."

Davis argued that the university shouldn't raise rates for any of the campus housing except the renovated Towers West dormitory.

Cheney Hall and the complex of Greek housing units are in deteriorating condition, he said. On top of that, some residence halls are far from full even though one entire residence hall -- Towers West -- has been closed for renovations this school year.

Currently, only about 1,500 students live on campus, said Davis.

"In Cheney there are some windows where you could have a breeze blowing through the window even when it is closed," said Davis.

"Greek housing is substandard," said Davis, a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The problems include leaky pipes and inoperative fire alarms, he said.

Residents of Greek housing had expressed unhappiness with the idea of having to pay higher room charges in their buildings, which are not air conditioned, while rates at a similarly unair-conditioned Dearmont would have remained the same.

As to the proposed general fee, Davis said the concept makes sense for students.

Currently, students each semester pay a $30 recreation center fee and full-time students pay a $16 student activity fee and a $9 athletic fee, Davis said.

Under the new plan, $2.25 of the $4-per-credit-hour charge would be earmarked for the recreation center and $1.75 would go for student activities and athletics.

All students would pay the fees. "Right now students who take between one and six hours don't have to pay the rec fee, so they can't use the rec center," explained Davis.

In many cases the general fee would actually result in a slight decrease in costs for students, Davis said.

School officials have estimated the $4-per-credit-hour fee would generate about $800,000 annually.