Growth adds pressure on Lincoln facilities

University's housing nears limit as applications surge

EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS STORY WAS CHANGED AT 11:36 a.m. Friday, April 17. Due to a computer error, the original posting was a different story under this headline, and the change was to place the correct story, about Lincoln University, in the correct file.

Lincoln University has received almost 1,700 more student applications this year than at the same time in 2014, chief of staff Jerome Offord reported at Thursday's curators meeting - 5,692 applications to date, compared with 4,000 a year ago.

The school is paying Royal Company to help target potential students in some areas and, Offord said, they've generated almost double the 600 applications they produced a year ago.

Based on the number of returning students who want to live on campus, he said the university is at 95 percent occupancy for the 2015-16 school year.

That means LU administrators need to focus more on future housing possibilities.

Martin Hall is closed and would need "from $2 million-$3 million to bring it up to code," Offord said.

President Kevin Rome noted a number of other Missouri colleges - including the University of Missouri, Missouri University of Science and Technology at Rolla and the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg - are building new residence halls.

"We have to be competitive," Rome told the curators. "Students make decisions (about where to go) in many different ways.

"And facilities influence the way students make decisions. So we have to be concerned about the conditions of some of our residence halls."

After the meeting, he told the News Tribune the university will have to finance the improvements since state funding is used for academic programs, not residence halls.

A new hall will cost at least $3 million and, more likely as much as $8 million. Lincoln spent close to $12 million, several years ago, to build the Sherman Scruggs Hall on Locust Street.

But Rome agreed with Curator Dana Cutler that the notion of building residence halls to last forever is going away.

"It's the competitive market," Rome explained, "and with the clients, the students we're serving today, they want new.

"And it costs so much to renovate these (older) residence halls, that it's easier to build something that can be taken down, then rebuilt."

With the constant change in technology, he added, "Who knows what we'll need in 20 years or 30 years?"

If Lincoln had the money today, he said, it would be possible to build a new residence hall in time for fall classes.

More realistically, Rome said, the earliest LU could have a new residence hall up-and-running would be fall 2016.

Curators on Thursday approved increases of about 2.5 percent to the room and board rates. Chief Financial Officer Sandy Koetting said that includes increases to the rates charged for private rooms and to technology fees charged to students taking less than a full, 15-hour course load.

"We did a study looking at what other apartments are paying in the community," Koetting said, "and we're still very competitive, considering that we cover many of the other costs, including wireless access, cable, electricity and water."

Curators also approved a $100 increase in the cost of a single occupancy room during the summer term.

With the changes, Koetting said, a full-time student living on campus would pay an average of $6,500 per-semester in-state rates and about $9,700 per semester for out-of-state students.

The board also clarified its graduation policy allowing some students to participate in the May graduation even though they haven't finished their required course work.

The policy was developed after LU officials dropped the winter commencement in December, leaving May as the only graduation ceremonies each year.

The revised policy said students can participate in the May ceremonies provided they have no more than two courses left to finish. Said Sewell, LU's provost and academic affairs vice president, explained the students must enroll in the two courses, pay the required graduation fees and sign an agreement "reconfirming that the degrees only will be conferred after the completion of all their degree requirements."

Curators elected Don Cook of St. Louis to be the board's next president, with Cutler as vice president.

Greg Gaffke of Jefferson City will be the secretary. Outgoing president Winston Rutledge, Jefferson City, is the board's treasurer.