THINGS TO DO ON SPRING BREAK

Spring break is over for students at Southeast Missouri State University. For all the attention paid to the excesses of the college-student invasions of sunny climes, it is interesting to note that many students don't head for the beaches during this annual ritual.

Instead, a good many students go home and spend time with their families. Some find work for the week to help defray expenses. Others do what the name of the week implies: They take a break from just about everything.

And then there are some students -- not many, but a growing number each year, it seems -- who take advantage of spring break to find ways to help themselves and others.

One group from Southeast's Catholic Campus Ministries, for example, went to southern Texas to work in a church-sponsored shelter for refugees. Another group from the Baptist Student Union joined international students in a cultural trip to New Orleans.

Students, of course, will choose what suits them best, and it can be hoped that those who partied at the beaches had fun and didn't get too sunburned. Others have returned to classes this week with a sense of fulfillment that comes from a week spent in self-improvement or in helping those who cannot, for whatever reasons, help themselves.