UNIVERSITY BUDGETS HAVE PLENTY TO SPARE

In a year that public colleges and universities around Missouri must find ways to cut expenses because of Gov. Bob Holden's order that they trim spending in the budget year that began July 1, Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents on Wednesday still found a way to grant faculty and staff members 2 percent-or-better pay hikes.

The board followed a recommendation of the university Budget Review Committee and approved a revised operating budget that stripped $2.3 million from an earlier budget proposal. The committee had recommended a way to reduce expenses and grant the pay raises without having to raise midyear student tuition, which the university had been planning to do.

A month ago the regents held off granting pay raises because of uncertainty over how much money the state would withhold from the school.

In addition to the 3 percent of state funding that is automatically withheld from schools and state agencies each year to make sure the state balances its budget, the governor decided to withhold an additional 5 percent of the budgets of all public two- and four-year schools against a possible shortfall in state revenue. In Southeast's case, that amounted to $2.3 million less than its original budget estimate.

The university's budget for the new fiscal year now stands at slightly more than $105 million.

In making the budget revision recommendations, the committee proposed saving $1 million by cutting spending for equipment and operations and more than $1 million by enacting a temporary hiring freeze. In addition, the committee projected that higher-than-expected enrollment will generate $150,000 more than was originally estimated.

Facing the same dilemma, the University of Missouri Board of Curators recently decided to cut $20.9 million from its budget by reducing hiring, research grants and equipment purchases. As a result, it will be able to give faculty raises without having to raise tuition, as had been feared.

The biggest cut for the four-campus University of Missouri system will be $14.5 million from its mission-enhancement plan to recruit talented professors and build new classrooms and research facilities. The plan had been financed for the last three years, and putting it off will affect about 125 new faculty positions. The university also will reduce allotments for maintenance and repairs by $4.7 million and will withhold some state research money awarded each of its campuses.

At Southeast, the school's vice presidents considered the budget committee's recommendations in advance of Wednesday's regents meeting, and the administration found the recommendations to be solid if employees were to get any kind of raises. Regents president Don Dickerson had said if figures supported it, the board "would be delighted" to include the faculty raises in the budget.

It seemed clear that if the University of Missouri could cut almost $21 million in spending from its budget, Southeast would find a way to reduce its $108 million budget by $2.3 million to provide the pay raises. Both schools should be commended for cutting costs and still managing to grant raises without tuition hikes.

But their frugal actions also show that if the schools can survive on cuts of those magnitudes in what the governor views as a tight year for the state financially, they should be able to find ways to similarly cut spending every year on their own and still provide the services expected of them.