UNIVERSITY'S LICENSE PLATE PROGRAM RAISES SCHOLARSHIP MONEY

Southeast Missouri State University believes people should have a license to learn.

That's not just a figure of speech. It's a university program to raise money for student scholarships. As part of the program, donors receive personalized license plates with the university's name and logo on them.

Last fiscal year, 90 people participated in the program. Since the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, the university has already had 90 people participate.

Melanie Murray, director of annual giving at Southeast, said she expects that number to grow later this fall.

That's because the license plates are renewable in October each year, she explained.

Murray said she has a goal of signing up 270 people in the license plate program this fiscal year.

Murray started her job at Southeast a year ago this month. She said that promoting the "License to Learn" program is one of her major goals.

"I've beefed up all the efforts that were done last year," she said. "The state has been tremendously cooperative in advancing the program."

The Missouri Department of Revenue has helped promote the program. In fact, the department plans to have personnel on hand at Houck Stadium during the Homecoming football game later this month to help promote the license plate program, she said.

Murray has mailed letters to university employees and others in an effort to drum up more interest in License to Learn.

Southeast's License to Learn is part of a statewide collegiate license plate program.

This is the third year for the program statewide. But so far the program has attracted few participants, said Bill Siedhoff, director of motor vehicles and drivers licensing for the Missouri Department of Revenue.

"We really have had pretty dismal results and I think that largely had to do with a lack of promotion," he said.

Currently, 16 Missouri universities and colleges, both public and private, participate in the program. Nearly 2,200 collegiate plates have been issued for all the schools combined, Siedhoff said.

The University of Missouri-Columbia leads the way with 800 participants. Washington University in St. Louis is second with about 300, he said.

Siedhoff has been trying to promote the program since becoming director in January.

The licensing division has set up displays at numerous events around the state, including county fairs and college football games.

Division personnel have given out about 4,000 applications combined at Mizzou football games this fall.

Siedhoff said some people are not aware that the collegiate plates are real license plates. "The general reaction is kind of disbelief that these plates can actually be put on the cars."

Siedhoff said he believes it's important for the state to promote a program like this that helps fund student scholarships.

"I think anything we can do as a state agency to provide resources to enable people to attend college, we ought to be doing that," he maintained.

A state law enacted in July 1990 allows issuance of personalized license plates, which incorporate the name and school colors of participating Missouri universities and colleges.

This is how the license plate program works. Each person that contributes at least $25 to the license-plate program at a college or university would receive an authorization form.

The donor takes the document to a Missouri license bureau office and fills out a form indicating his or her choice of five characters or letters for the personalized plates.

The red and white Southeast plates feature the university's Academic Dome logo.

In addition to the $25, the participant must pay the regular state license fees for personalized plates. The total cost, counting the $25 contribution to Southeast or any of the other participating schools, would amount to about $70 a year on average, Siedhoff said.

The donor must annually contribute at least $25 to the university program and pay the regular annual state fees in order to continue receiving the special license plates, Murray said.

A donor can mail in his or her $25 check to the university and receive the authorization form back in the mail, she advised.

Siedhoff said he hopes to get state lawmakers to amend the law in the next session to allow the entire transaction to be handled at license bureau offices as is done with a similar program in Florida.

Siedhoff would like to see Missouri's program succeed as Florida's has.

"Florida has had tremendous success with the (license plate) program. They have issued 152,000 collegiate license plates in the state of Florida. Miami University alone has issued 24,000 collegiate plates," he pointed out.

Florida started its program in 1987.

As to Southeast's License to Learn program, the money raised goes into a special account. "It goes into an account that we have set up as an endowment for scholarships," said Murray.

As of the end of the last fiscal year on June 30, the account had a balance of about $5,000.

She said the fund needs to have a balance of $10,000 in principle before it can generate sufficient interest for use in funding scholarships.

"I am looking for a very profitable year this year," she said. "We are already tied with last year's total (number of participants), and we are only three and a half months into the program."

A number of university faculty and staff have the special license plates.

Southeast President Kala Stroup has special plates on her vehicle. They say "SE 14," which stands for 14th president of Southeast.

Murray said a strong effort has been made to inform Southeast students and their parents about the license plate program.

Murray's hopeful that all her promotional efforts will pay off. For now, she's hard at work on deciding just what she wants to say on her specialized license plates.