BUSINESS BUILDING READY TO PROCEED

Gov. Mel Carnahan is expected to attend the Nov. 29 groundbreaking of the Southeast Missouri State University College of Business building.

The ceremony is set for 10 a.m. at the site of the planned building at the corner of Henderson and New Madrid.

The ceremony was postponed in September for fear Constitutional Amendment 7, or Hancock II, would pass, prompting state budget cuts.

Educators feared Hancock would have threatened the issuance of $12.3 million in state bonds to fund the project.

Voters rejected the constitutional amendment in the Nov. 8 election.

But even though the university officially called a halt to the business building project until after the election, the school continued to prepare for construction.

With little fanfare, parts of Dearmont residence hall were renovated to serve as the new offices for the school's public safety department, and the Air Force and Army ROTC units.

All three operations are headquartered in three houses, which will be torn down as part of the site work for the business building.

Ken Dobbins, Southeast's executive vice president, said that despite all the concern about Hancock II, the work never stopped. "We continued, but we slowed it down a little bit."

Most of the $130,000 in renovation work has been completed.

The public safety department, which includes the campus police, is expected to move its operations to Dearmont on Jan. 2. The ROTC units are scheduled to move the week of Jan. 9, the start of the spring semester.

The public safety department will be housed on the first floor of D wing, which is on the south side of the Dearmont complex. The ROTC units will be headquartered on the first floor of A wing, in the north section of the residence hall.

The renovation work included new heating and air conditioning, and electrical and handicapped accessibility improvements.

"Basically, we took out the furniture and cabinetry in there and repainted everything, and put in new electrical to accommodate office-type use for computers," Facilities Management Director Al Stoverink said.

Dobbins said the three houses near Henderson and New Madrid will be razed as part of the site work, scheduled to begin next spring.

The 100,000-square-foot, three-story business building could be in operation by the fall 1996.