SEMO MULLS FEE HIKE

The Southeast Missouri State University administration wants to hike general fees over the next five years to pay for a new student center.

The administration also has proposed raising incidental fees for the 1998-99 school year by $3 a credit-hour for in-state undergraduates and $6 a credit-hour for out-of-state students.

With increases in both the general and incidental fees, in-state undergraduates would pay $4 more a credit-hour and out-state students $7 more a credit-hour.

In-state students would be charged $104 a credit-hour. Out-of-state students would be charged $187 a credit-hour.

The Board of Regents is expected to consider the fee hikes at its April 29 meeting.

The proposed fee hikes still would leave Southeast with the lowest fees among its major in-state rivals, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast's executive vice president.

Under the proposal, it would cost $1,248 for an in-state, undergraduate student to take 12 credit-hours of classes fall semester.

Even with a hike in fees, Southeast students would continue to pay about a third of the cost of their education, Dobbins said.

Southeast already plans to hike the general fee by 50 cents a credit-hour to help retire bonds for the expansion of the Student Recreation Center.

School officials want to increase the general fee by another 50 cents a credit-hour as part of a phased-in fee hike to retire bonds that would be issued for construction of a $12.5 million University Commons building in the center of campus.

In all, the general fee would increase from $6.70 to $7.70 per credit-hour next fall.

Dobbins said the university wants to phase in the fee hike so students won't have to pay for a building that won't be completed before they graduate.

If the regents approve the project, the university could begin construction on the building in July 1999. It would wrap around the existing Parker Hall and also involve major renovations to the interior of that structure.

Dobbins said the fee hike would increase from 50 cents next school year to $1 in 1999-2000. It would remain at that level for three years.

In 2002-2003, the fee might be increased another 50 cents. That increase won't occur if enrollment goes up 5 percent, Dobbins said.

Student Government President Jason Lane recently reported to the regents that a campus survey found student support for a fee hike to build the University Commons.

Lane said a fee hike had the support of 57 percent of some 500 students surveyed.

Both commuter and on-campus students were surveyed. Support was higher among students living on campus.