UNIVERSITY REGENTS CONSIDER FEE HIKES; INCREASE TO $100 PER CREDIT HOUR SUGGESTED

Southeast Missouri State University wants to raise incidental and general fees by $4 a credit hour next academic year.

In-state undergraduate students would pay $100 a credit hour if the increase is approved.

The Board of Regents will consider the fee hikes when it meets Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

The university's budget review committee has recommended increasing incidental fees by $3 and general fees by $1.

Dr. Dale Nitzschke, Southeast's president, said the university has tried to keep fee hikes to a minimum. "This institution still provides, in my view, the best bargain for the buck that you are going to find in higher education," he said Wednesday.

Southeast ranks fifth among eight public, four-year universities in Missouri in in-state student fees. Those fees don't include room and board charges.

Nitzschke said a steady increase in enrollment could help keep fee hikes in check.

Ken Dobbins, Southeast's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the university has tried to keep fee hikes in line with inflation.

"The cost of everything else goes up," said Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents. "We have to recognize some modest increase just to keep pace."

Dobbins said the 23-member budget review committee looked at funding requests that would have required a $16 hike in student fees. The committee couldn't justify that hike in fees, he said.

Each $1 increase in student fees would raise an additional $185,000.

The proposed $3 hike in the incidental fee would raise about $555,000 in additional revenue.

Dobbins said it hasn't been decided yet exactly how the additional money will be spent.

Some of it is expected to go to faculty and staff raises. The school also is facing other expenses.

Southeast will have added student-labor costs in the 1997-98 year from a federally mandated increase in the minimum wage, Dobbins said.

The minimum wage will go up from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 an hour next fall, he said.

Southeast also has costs associated with computer upgrades and other technology improvements.

"You can't stop improving your technology," said Dobbins. "We are committed to making sure we offer a quality education at Southeast," he said.

The $1 hike in the general fees would help fund improvements to the school's recreation fields at Sprigg and Bertling, and plans for a university center for students and expansion of the Student Recreation Center.

Dobbins said consultants would be hired to study and develop plans for those three projects.

Improvements to the recreation fields would be done in stages, Dobbins said.

The fields, he said, aren't in good shape: Drainage is poor, the fields don't have any lighting or restrooms, and there isn't any off-street parking.

The university is looking at the possibility of building a student center or commons building in the middle of the campus. It would replace the University Center.

The university also wants to expand the Student Recreation Center, which is attached to the Show Me Center.

Dobbins said an expansion could include an occupational and physical therapy lab.

Bonds could be issued to fund such projects, with student fees going to retire the bonds, Dobbins said.

The projects ultimately would require approval of the Board of Regents. The projects likely would require even greater hikes in student fees in the future, he said.

Most students aren't happy about fee hikes but are resigned to it, said Kimberly Speight, editor of Southeast's student newspaper, The Capaha Arrow.

Student fees of $100 a credit hour seem high, she said. Still, she said, students know it could be worse.

"It is still relatively inexpensive compared to many other universities," she said.

Student Government, she said, supports the fee hikes.