UNIVERSITY TUITION CLIMBS IN FACE OF ENROLLMENT DECLINE

Southeast Missouri State University officials are once again recommending an increase in tuition. On March 20, the Board of Regents will consider raising tuition by $4 a credit hour for in-state students, and $8 a credit hour for out-of-state students for the 1995-96 academic year.

The upward spiral of tuition is an uncomfortable trend. Southeast may be pricing itself out of range for too many students. Higher education should follow the example of the business world: Find ways to cut operating expenses in order to make a product available at a competitive price.

A number of institutions of higher education are embracing the notion of discount tuitions to build enrollments. Southeast might want to consider the possibilities. The university could start by polling its potential student base: Are they more interested in campus improvements or affordable costs?

In the 1984-85 school year, tuition and general fees based on 30 credit hours were $775. Compare that to the 1994-95 year, just a decade later: $2,670 for the same 30 credit hours. The cost difference is steep, and that doesn't even cover the dramatic rise in room and board costs as well.

Ironically, the university must cover a $700,000 revenue shortfall this fiscal year because of enrollment declines. While a smaller student pool accounts for much of the decline, the affordability of Southeast is another key factor.

Nationally, high schools are graduating 2.5 million students a year as opposed to 3.1 million a decade ago, according to Forbes Magazine. But interestingly enough, the percentage of high school students going on to college has risen to 63 percent from 53 percent.

At Southeast, this latest tuition increase would raise about $750,000 in additional revenue, which officials said would cover increased costs due to inflation and a number of campus improvements.

Meanwhile, enrollment continues to decline at Southeast. University officials point out that first-time students to Southeast increased in the fall of 1994. While beginning freshmen were down by 44, transfers from community colleges were up by 99. But from fall 1981 to fall 1993, Southeast's beginning freshman enrollment declined nearly 40 percent, to 1,280 from 2,126.

And the overall enrollment picture is discouraging. The combined undergraduate and graduate head count on the first day of classes last fall was 7,673, down 2.6 percent from last year's 7,878. Compare that with the fall of 1984, when nearly 9,200 students were enrolled at Southeast.

While enrollments have dropped, overall faculty, staff and administration have grown. In the fall of 1983, there was a total of 839 full-time faculty, staff and administration employees at Southeast. Ten years later, there were 41 fewer faculty members, but an additional 137 non-faculty employees have swelled the ranks of faculty, staff and administration to a total of 935 employees.

Jason Crowell, Student Government president, has encouraged university officials to consider the option of downsizing as a way to deal with revenue shortages. He says the university shouldn't allow the price of education to escalate to a level that excludes area students. Crowell makes a good point.

Southeast is still a regional institution that needs to remember the economic resources of the region. Many Southeast Missouri counties are poverty stricken. To truly serve the entire region, the cost of a college education must remain affordable.