AREA CRAVES MORE HIGHER-ED ACCESS

Southeast Missouri residents want more access to higher education.

That is the message Southeast Missouri State University officials say they heard during nine public hearings in the region.

About 140 people attended the forums, held across the region from Cape Girardeau to Poplar Bluff.

University President Dr. Kala Stroup said area residents want more higher educational opportunities out in the region. They want more community colleges. Southeast is the only four-year college in Southeast Missouri.

"We are very much underserved in this part of the state with community colleges," Associate Provost Pauline Fox said. She said high school graduates who don't go to college could benefit from community colleges.

There are four community colleges in Southeast Missouri, but none in Cape Girardeau County or the surrounding area.

Setting up a new community college could prove difficult politically and financially. But Stroup and Fox said the university might offer community-college courses and programs in the future.

"I think we have to be creative in the way we deliver community-college education," Stroup said.

Fox said the university could work with state agencies, educational organizations and schools to deliver classrooms to the region. As an example, she pointed to the success of the Bootheel Education Center in Malden. The university operates the center, along with Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff and the Missouri Extension Service.

Southwest Missouri State University has a branch campus in West Plains, and residents want similar arrangements in this region, Fox said.

Stroup and Fox said area residents want the university to have a physical presence in their communities. And many communities in Southeast Missouri would like to have a Bootheel Education Center, Stroup said.

One plan might be to set up university offices in the region staffed with admissions counselors.

Fox said she thinks the public recognizes the difficulties of a university reaching out to a 24-county area. A possibility to meet that need is the use of interactive, satellite television.

With such technology, the students and the professors could communicate with each other just as if they were sitting in a single classroom. Fox and Stroup said the university would consider such programs.

The forums also cited a need for degree programs in occupational and physical therapy.

Southeast Missouri State regents will discuss the results of the forums at their Oct. 25 meeting.

A university committee has been charged with developing a strategic plan, a process that is expected to take about a year. The university wants to settle on four to six goals to focus on for the next few years, Fox said.

A relatively small number of people attended the forums. But those who did primarily were community leaders.

Overall, university officials were pleased with those who attended the forums. Fox said they were from the area's business, medical and educational communities, which are the groups most involved with the university.