Fee increase to help with campus renovations

The Board of Regents recently authorized Southeast Missouri State University to pursue funding through the issuance of bonds from the Missouri Health and Education Facilities Authority for the full cost of construction, $58.3 million, for renovations in Academic Hall, Magill Hall, the campus coal power plant and other major deferred maintenance and repair projects.

"This is very beneficial to us," Angela Meyer, director of facilities management said. "We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it's projects we've needed to get done."

To help pay for the loans Southeast will be receiving, the university administration brought the issue of raising general fees for students to the student government meeting on Monday, Oct. 25.

An already approved increase will send a student's tuition--if they take 15 credit hours--from $355.50 now to $430.50. Southeast administration proposed another $10 increase in general fees, which would increase tuition next semester to $505.50.

After hearing a presentation on the renovations needed, Student Government members discussed how to educate students on the issue and get their opinions, including using forums or social media sites. Student Government formed an ad-hoc committee to weigh the pros and cons of each option to gather student feedback and have not decided whether to approve or deny the increasing general fees proposal.

Katie Herring, Student Government president said the issue was difficult because it's two-sided.

"Renovations have been deferred a lot … If something isn't done we could lose the use of buildings and that's a scary thing," said Herring.

She said both the university administration and the student body need to be realistic with the expectations they have of each other.

"We're backed into a corner here," Liz Vinson, liberal arts senator on Student Government said. "Students are going to hate us for raising fees, but either we raise student fees or lose student services."

"I am not comfortable making this decision without including students in the process," said Herring. "If Student Government were to attempt to pass something without gaining student input I would not support it."

However, Herring said Student Government agrees that student input and feedback is very important in making this decision.

"The hardest part is that we [Student Government] might have to make a decision that the students won't like," Herring said.

She also said, "It's up to senators to educate themselves on both sides of the issue and make the best decision for the university…There are consequences and ramifications with either decision."

Renovating Academic Hall will be the first priority on campus. There have been nine water line breaks in the last three years because of old rusting pipes and they have even had to "rig up" house gutters and garden hoses because of air handling unit leaks.

Mangels said on average the pipes in Academic Hall are 75-years-old.

"A lot of the building goes back to the 40s or even later," she said.

The university plans on moving all departments, services and people out of Academic Hall over Christmas break of 2011. By January of 2012 Southeast plans on starting construction on the building that Mangels said would likely take about 18 months.

Dr. Ken Dobbins, university president, said most of these people will be transferred into Memorial Hall.

Outside renovations, which make up 21.9 percent of the restoration, will include replacing the slate roof, gutters and about 250 windows, as well as resurfacing the copper dome and repairing the downspouts.

Infrastructure renovations, which account for 47 percent, will include fixing all rusting pipes, mechanical and electrical engineering to prevent electrical surges and developing a new layout for all three floors without compromising the building's history.

Mangels said the first floor of Academic Hall needs to be a better "one-stop shop" for student services and that new classrooms with technology packages might be added so more students have courses at Southeast's landmark building in the future.

"We're not going to make it [Academic Hall] all sleek and modern," Mangels said. "We want to preserve that [architectural history] and celebrate it."

The university will be preserving the mosaic tile, woodwork and stain glass windows throughout the building. Window unit replacements will also respect the history of Academic Hall, by keeping a wooden appearance.

Southeast also plans on creating a platform under the dome with a window so parents and students can see the woodwork and chalk writing.

The next priority is renovating Magill Hall to improve the functional relationships of each science department, building an addition for the air-flow systems and making separate water lines for lab and drinking water.

Meyer said creating the addition would be cheaper than building new.

"It's a clever way to fix the problem," she said.

Converting the coal power plant to a natural gas plant is also on the list to renovate in the next three to five years.

Currently "we have to run the boiler all the time, almost at capacity, to keep it permitted. If we don't it puts out too many emissions," said Mangels.

Next Fall the university plans on having the back up natural gas boiler completed and then they can start removing the coal boiler and replacing it with other natural gas boilers.