ALUMNI GET SOFT SELL ON ARTS CAMPUS

Good weather and plenty of entertainment gave university alumni and city residents a chance to tour the old St. Vincent's Seminary property on Saturday.

Some 100 people visited the seminary grounds during an event with the Southeast Missouri State University Alumni Association acting as host. Food, square dancing and children's games were provided.

Jane Stacy, alumni development director, said alumni felt the event was an important opportunity to allow people "to catch a vision." People need to get a better understanding of why the old St. Vincent's Seminary property should be developed into a campus for the university's art, music, theater and dance programs, and the best way to do that is to visit the seminary grounds.

Few direct remarks were made about redevelopment of the seminary. Instead, most of those attending the event wandered about getting a closer look at the property. Interest was especially focused on the property's view of the Mississippi River.

"We didn't intend to have information or a barrage of materials," said Stacy. "People needed to come out and see, because once you've been here on the bluff, I don't see how you cannot support this."

Stacy said the former seminary has a calm, relaxing atmosphere that would nurture the creative spirit of fine arts students. "A child studying art and music, or a writer, needs to have a place they can ponder," she said. "Sometimes we forget that we have to have thinking places. This is the best setting for that."

Voters will consider a joint city-university proposal to redevelop the seminary to a River Campus during elections on Nov. 3. The university and city have signed a cooperative agreement on management of the River Campus. The university will own and pay for maintenance of the facility, but a Board of Managers made up of university and city representatives will set policies.

For the campus to become a reality, voters must approve both an $8.9 million bond issue and an accompanying measure to increase the city's hotel-motel tax and extend the restaurant tax to pay for the bond issue. Both propositions have to pass for the project to be funded. The tax measures would not be enacted if the bond issue failed.