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Fair ~ River stage: 34 Rising Saturday, November 21, 2009 |
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Regents approve new dormSaturday, December 15, 2007Southeast Missouri State University got the green light from the board of regents Friday to proceed with plans for a new residence hall. University officials will hear presentations from architects next week, and construction could begin in March for a fall 2009 opening. The $20.5 million project will be financed by bonds. There are 2,540 students living on campus this year, up from 2,381 in 2006. The upward trend is expected to continue. Some freshmen are living in Greek housing run by the university due to a housing crunch, said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management. "We also had to reduce the number of private rooms, which is not something we like to do," he said. "There were around 200 requests we were not able to accommodate." The proposed 300-bed dorm at Henderson Avenue and Broadway will most likely house "learning communities," where students with similar interests or majors are grouped together. Rooms will be double-occupancy. An initial plan discussed over the summer called for a nonresidential floor to be used for locker facilities for Houck Field, but that idea has been scrapped. Bruce Skinner, residence life director, said layout plans have not been developed yet, but he expects suite-style housing. "Privacy is extremely important, but at the same time the ability to socialize with friends is critical," Skinner said. In November, the university's foundation purchased the Henderson House, formerly a private apartment complex on campus, to create additional student housing. The apartments will be converted to 40 double-occupancy rooms by fall 2008. A "Greek Village" was proposed over the summer by school officials but was dropped in favor of the new dorm. The village would have created townhouse-style housing for Greek students near the Show Me Center and transformed their current housing into residence halls for freshmen. "Initial costs for both projects were roughly comparable, but the long-term cost of the Greek Village promised to be much more," Holt said. The decision to put the village on the back burner was made following a series of meetings with various campus organizations this fall, Skinner said. Tyler Surman, a former vice president of the Interfraternity Council, said Greeks didn't support the plan wholeheartedly because of the proposed location. "Why would we want to move farther away?" he asked. Jennifer Belmar, former president of the Panhellenic Council, said price and equality of space were issues for some. Building the residence hall will prevent Southeast from having to turn people away, a current risk, Holt said. Audit approved Regents also approved an audit of finances for the year ending June 30, 2007, that lists the university as a "low-risk" auditee. No significant problems were found except for a weakness related to reconciling tax liability accounts, but a BKD, LLP representative, the company completing the audit, said the university has already taken care of the issue. Regents also decided the university will stop producing electricity at its power plant, instead buying it entirely from AmerenUE. The move is expected to save the university $153,500 in 2008, Holt said. Previously, the university generated 60 percent of its electricity in conjunction with Johnson Controls International. The past few weeks the university has been using backup generators because the power plant's turbine is broken and needs half a million dollars' worth of repairs, Holt said. The university will continue using the power plant to produce steam for heating and cooling. Other action * The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system at the Sikeston campus will be replaced at a cost of $845,738. * Thomas Swayne Byrd was reappointed as a university representative on the River Campus Board of Managers, and Kathy Mangels was reappointed as a university representative to the Show Me Center Board of Managers. 335-6611, extension 123 Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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ugh - where to start on this feeding frenzy?
Why does the university even consider providing Greek housing? I am a strong believer in the Greek system, being an alumni of a Greek organization myself - but at the campus I attended with 24 separate Greek organizations for a campus of only 4,500 - all Greek housing was funded by the respective Greek organizations through private loans that their individual housing organizations arranged.
And, what is the problem with allowing freshmen to live in Greek housing, unless they are not pledged to that organization?
What are the projections for enrollment? Is this 'shortage' of housing a short-term problem, or something that is predicted to occur for the next 10 or 20 or so years to justify additional housing? Again, at the campus I attended, short-term housing shortages were addressed through semester rentals of local motel rooms.
The Sikeston campus is relatively very new - why does the HVAC need to be replaced already? Poor design?
The electrical generating portion of the campus power plant has been in a shambles for most of the last several years. A steam turbine is a delicate piece of equipment - are there operator capabilities and errors involved in this decision? A half-million dollars of repair represents a three-year ROI - more than acceptable by most accounting guidelines.
It's been said that, 'ignorance is bliss'. I'll have to say that not knowing about these issues would present much less personal grief as a taxpayer.
good choice. hopefully that site helps some businesses along broadway.
Wow semo actually doing 2 things in a row to benefit the students, Aquatic Center and now Dorms... wow i guess they ran out of places for fountains... now all we need is a place to park.
How many parking garages do they have to build before everyone will be happy? The real problem is that its too expensive to have a parking permit and people are too lazy to walk from the former pig lot.
"And, what is the problem with allowing freshmen to live in Greek housing, unless they are not pledged to that organization?"
You may have misunderstood the statement in the article. The University had to house non-Greek Freshman, students that just arrived in August, into Greek housing because there were no more rooms in Towers, New Hall, etc. They live on the top floor of the Sigma Chi/Lambda Chi building, and have since move-in day (before anyone pledges). They were not Greek students, they were normal Freshmen that didn't have a room anywhere else on the campus available.
"Is this 'shortage' of housing a short-term problem, or something that is predicted to occur for the next 10 or 20 or so years to justify additional housing?"
Long-term problem. 300 more beds might not really be enough according to people I know in Residence Life. The article mentions they already turned down roughly 200 students that would have purchased private rooms, and the person I know in Residence Life says that number (kids wanting, and willing to pay for, private rooms) increases each year.
As far as the power plant - since they will be reducing the coal purchases because of this, it will be nice to not have as much of that coal laying around and to not have black soot all over you from just walking to your class. The cleaner air around the middle of the campus won't be a bad thing either.
It's great to hear that the University is doing so well and is growing. This article is a signal of growth and improvement at SE...and I can't wait to see the years coming.
I'm thankful for the strong leadership at SEMO right now that is bringing the campus through a stage of rapid growth & development. SE is in a far better position than most of its public counterparts across the state.
That's right The "Dobbie" Boss, go on, pat yourself on the back. You'll be jobless pretty soon. Word has it, you and Kav are out the door after January 1.
Yes, we should disregard Greek housing. They don't supply any leadership on campus, nor do they give any money back to the University after graduation.
Wait, that's right - they provide the majority of both despite being only 10-15% of the student population. Look up the stats, call the Foundation, and browse the leadership groups and activities. Someone prove me wrong.
I would also bet that an established Greek community like Mizzou did not all of a sudden just have all these organizations with plenty of money to build huge houses. Many places (at least initially) have partnerships between the school, the local chapters and the national organizations. New Greek housing will be a very key part of future growth. It will only happen when the groups living in those bomb shelters finally realize they can greatly benefit financially and organizationally when they think outside the box like the two fraternities that are in historic mansions close to the Show Me Center.
stl_redhawk who said any of the things you are defensive about??? There are some greek students who are very active and have provided some great leadership over the years. I however agree with a lot of other people here. I do not support public funding being spent on housing for socially selective groups. If the Greeks secure financial help on their own to build such a complex I think that'd be great. If your statistic of 10-15% of the student population is correct, why should so much funding be spent to cater to such a small group of students. I believe the greek organizations play an important role at most universities but I more strongly believe in the concept of self sufficiency for social organizations and not sacraficing funding for other projects that benefit all students.
Good idea to build another res hall..don't like the location or proposed location though.
300 beds doesn't sound like building for the future. I went to a school where Greek Housing was a partnership with the university and Greek Alumni. These houses were a source of pride for the fraternity and their alumni and an excellent way for the university to help open up more spaces in the dormitories.
I'd be prideful too if I could use public funding for my own organizations use instead of finding ways to finance it by ourselves.
There are people who live in the henderson house now. I personally know some of those who are disabled and on social security who are now being evicted from their homes. Some of the current residents of the Henderson House are current SEMO students. It seems that these folks have been lost in all the hot air that gets blown around here.
I'm curious as well as to why the HVAC at the Sikeston campus is being replaced as new as the building is? If it was a design flaw - I would think the contractor or some other engineering party should be picking up the tab.