Regents approve fee increases

Students at Southeast Missouri State University will see a hefty increase in fees next school year, but slightly less than originally proposed by school officials.

The board of regents, meeting for the first time in the new music recital hall at the River Campus, voted Friday to raise tuition and general fees by $14 a credit hour for in-state students. In doing so, the regents trimmed $1.50 from the proposed general fees increase.

The regents scaled back the increased fee to pay for growing computer upgrade and maintenance costs by 50 cents per credit hour.

The board approved a new cultural arts fee to help pay projected expenses associated with the new River Campus arts school. But the regents cut back the fee from $2 to $1 per credit hour.

Board president Brad Bedell argued against imposing any per-credit-hour cultural arts fee for the inaugural year of the River Campus.

Bedell said that would give school officials an opportunity to track revenue and expenses and better determine how much to charge students in future years.

But regent Edward Matthews said it would be unwise for the board not to approve a cultural arts fee. "I think we are putting ourselves in a hole from the get go," he said.

The $2 per credit hour fee would have raised $400,000 to help pay the estimated $1.4 million cost for the first year of operation of the new River Campus.

Regent Jim Limbaugh suggested that students should pay some amount to attend events at the River Campus. He said students are less likely to attend free performances than if they have to pay for them.

Under the per-credit-hour plan put forth by the administration, students would be able to attend student performances free of charge and pay half price to attend touring events.

School officials plan to pay the bulk of the cost of River Campus operations through internal budget reallocations.

The goal, said university president Dr. Ken Dobbins, is to break even when it comes to the cost of cultural performances and the revenue generated by such events. "There won't be a profit in this operation," he said.

In the end, the regents unanimously imposed the scaled-back cultural arts fee.