UNIVERSITY REGENTS HIKE STUDENT FEES FOR RECREATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents Friday approved a 50-cent-per-credit-hour increase in student activity fees to fund improvements to the Student Recreation Center and outdoor athletic fields.

Regents also approved the creation of a new polytechnic institute at the university.

The fee increase will fund an $8.3 million bond issue to pay for improvements to the recreational facilities, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, university executive vice president.

The increase will go into effect next fall and will bring student activity fees to $4.25 per credit hour.

The Student Recreation Center would be expanded by 39,776 square feet, a 65 percent increase, Dobbins said.

The expansion would mean additional space for aerobics, weight training, intramural activities and office spaces, with a budget of $5.3 million.

"What this would provide is not only more space, but also the ability to do multiple functions and multiple activities at the same time," Dobbins said.

University staff monitored attendance at the recreation center, and Dobbins said he was surprised by the results.

On average, 1,100 to 1,200 people use the facility every week. In the 1996-97 academic year, 160,000 people used the center.

About 20 percent of those people were community members, and university faculty and staff made up about 7 percent of the total headcount.

Student attendance is fairly evenly divided between on- and off-campus students and between upper- and lower-classmen, Dobbins said.

The recreational fields project will upgrade fields used for intramural softball and soccer and intercollegiate softball and soccer and improvements to the tennis courts, as well as improved drainage and irrigation and a central concession and gathering area for students.

The bond issue will fund $7 million of the improvements package, and the remaining $1.3 million would come from university sources.

A.G. Edwards and Sons was chosen as the underwriter for the bonds.

University officials had originally projected a $1.50-per-credit-hour increase to pay for the project, Dobbins said, but after reviewing their options they learned that they could finance the bond issue without needing a debt-service reserve fund that would have required approximately $800,000.

The 50-cent increase is "a lot more palatable" to regents, said Donald Dickerson, board president.

In other action, the university's new polytechnic institute becomes a reality on Nov. 1.

Regents approved a proposal to create the new institute, which will coordinate a number of functions, including existing degree programs in the department of industrial technology; operation of a Center of Excellence in Manufacturing; 2+2 cooperative programs with St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley and articulations with others; cooperative technical programs with the University of Missouri-Rolla and Central Missouri State University; and technical programs at the Sikeston Area Higher Education Center and other campus center.

The institute will also coordinate programs on the main campus with programs at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff and Mineral Area College at Park Hills.

"It will be a centerpiece by which the university will assume a much more integral role in education having to do with technology in Missouri," said Dr. Charles Kupchella, university provost.

Development of the institute will occur in phases; for now, it will operate under the department of industrial technology's umbrella.

"It's intended to be a flexible organizational entity," Kupchella said. "It will allow us to move nimbly and quickly to form all of those connections with institutions and industry."

Manufacturing makes up about 30 percent of Missouri's economy, he said, and universities have not traditionally met the needs of industry in providing workers with solid technical and technological skills.

Construction of a polytechnic institute building is the university's highest priority for new construction, according to university officials.

Dickerson said he hopes industry in the area will support the new institute. He said he often hears from employers "constantly complaining about not being able to find qualified people for the workplace."

In other action, regents approved financial reports from KPMG Peat Marwick for the fiscal year ending June 30.

Also approved was the creation of a bachelor of science degree in environmental science.