Declining state aid has led to higher student fees at Southeast Missouri State University and other regional schools, threatening "the last bastion of low cost" undergraduate education, Southeast's president said Thursday.

Southeast President Kala Stroup made that point at Thursday's meeting of the Board of Regents at the University Center.

Stroup told the regents that she made the same point in a presentation in Jefferson City Wednesday before the state House Appropriations Committee on Education and Transportation. Southeast was also represented at that meeting by Ken Dobbins, the university's vice president for finance and administration.

"As I told the appropriations committee, what we see here is a change of public policy," Stroup told the regents.

Stroup said Southeast is "edging out" of the affordable-education level because of having to significantly increase student fees in recent years.

In 1980-81, student fees and room-and-board charges for in-state, full-time undergraduates totaled $1,660 for the academic

year.

This year, incidental and other student fees alone total more than $1,800. Coupled with room-and-board charges, a full-time undergraduate living on campus is paying more than $4,600 this academic year, shows university budget information provided to the House committee and regents.

Southeast's students now pay a third of the cost of their college education, Stroup said. A budget analysis presented to the regents suggests that students might be paying nearly 36 percent of the cost in the coming 1993 fiscal year.

Stroup said state aid has declined. With budget cuts and withholdings, Southeast is operating with state aid of $28.89 million for the 1992 fiscal year, which is less than state funding for general operations of the university in the previous two fiscal years.

The current level of funding is comparable to state funding the university received in the 1989 fiscal year, budget information shows.

When inflation is taken into account, state aid for general appropriations at Southeast this fiscal year is equivalent to $17.5 million in 1981 dollars. That's slightly less than the $17.9 million in state funding the university received for general operations in 1981, budget figures show.

"What you have is this university this year is operating on the equivalent of $17 million, which is what we operated on in 1981," said Stroup.

In recent years, Southeast has cut services and eliminated positions to bring costs in line with the revenue shortfall, Stroup said.

In fiscal year 1989, Southeast realized more than $1 million in savings by: eliminating 20 faculty positions, reducing summer school hiring, eliminating 14 other positions, withholding from operations and equipment budgets, changing the university's medical plan, cutting $135,000 as a result of administrative restructuring and cutting $200,000 in planned academic program improvements.

In fiscal year 1990, Southeast cut $800,000 in expenses by: eliminating 10 positions and leaving 15 vacant, eliminating several academic centers, the office of fiscal analyst and the university yearbook among others, and deferring Southeast's move to NCAA Division I and the startup of the National Public Radio affiliate station.

In the 1991 fiscal year, Southeast saved $808,000 by doing such things as: cutting administration in student services, reducing operating budgets of all divisions and making use of carryover funds and the auxiliary services' reserve balances, freezing vacancies, and eliminating planned computer and printing equipment purchases.

For the current fiscal year, Southeast has had to make up a $2.8 million shortfall in state aid, budget figures show.

It has done this by, among other things, increasing incidental and textbook fees, reducing the varsity athletic budget and division operating budgets, not giving any general salary increase to university employees, instituting a hiring freeze, reducing summer session offerings, and by the planned closing of most of the campus buildings over the Christmas break from Dec. 21 through Jan. 5.

Stroup said the university will be "basically closed down" during the Christmas break.

The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education has recommended state funding of $35.16 million for general operations for Southeast in the coming fiscal year that begins July 1.

The board is also recommending Southeast receive $4.59 million for capital improvements, including $2.2 million for maintenance and repair, and $2.4 million for remodeling and renovation.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the capital improvement funding recommendation includes more than $500,000 for installation of elevators in three campus buildings, but no new funding for the business school project.

Typically, Southeast and other public colleges and universities in Missouri receive less state funding than what is recommended by the coordinating board.

Following the regents meeting Thursday, Stroup said members of the House committee had indicated that state funding for the coming year would be tight.

"They just told us at the outset that they have some real (state funding) problems," said Stroup.