Making an entrance

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents will vote today on a plan to spend more than $1 million to renovate the former First Baptist Church sanctuary building on Broadway to house alumni, foundation and athletic offices.

The regents are scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. at the St. Louis Club in Clayton, Mo. The regents plan to return to the club Friday for a board retreat.

The proposed renovations to the church sanctuary building will be the final phase of improvements at the site, school officials said.

Renovations could be completed before the start of fall 2007 classes, said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management at Southeast.

The university bought the church property at 926 Broadway in Cape Girardeau in May 2003 to increase student parking and expand campus services. The university turned the church activities building into a recreational facility for students and converted the church education building into a business innovation center.

This fall, the university hired HKW Architects of St. Louis to design improvements to the sanctuary building itself.

Plans call for a canopied, stepped entrance to the second floor on the west side of the church building, with an exterior plaza connected by steps to the main parking lot, which would have 18 fewer spaces. It will provide the main entrance to the foundation and alumni offices, Holt said.

The building's columned entrance on Broadway would be used for big gatherings and receptions.

First Baptist Church has removed the pews, Holt said. The sanctuary will be renovated into a banquet and meeting room, but the stained glass windows will remain.

"The biggest challenge was to provide an entrance that was a front-door entrance but did not detract from the building itself," he said.

All of the offices will be in the rear of the building. "Without a front entrance, the impression would be that the foundation was just stuck in the back," Holt said.

A rear door likely would be the main entrance for coaches and students going to and from athletic offices, he said.

Interior work would include major renovations to the second, third and fourth floors to create new offices.

Offices for the school's fund-raising and alumni services would be housed on the second and third floors. Athletic offices would be on the fourth floor.

The second floor is the main floor of the building. The first floor, which Holt likened to a basement, has some storage space but no usable office space.

University officials had hoped the project would be farther along. Holt said it took longer than anticipated to come up with a suitable design.

Foundation and alumni staff currently share space in a small building near the Show Me Center on Sprigg Street. Athletic offices are crowded into tight quarters in aging Houck Field House.

School officials said the university would use donated funds, rental revenue, athletics department money and funds previously set aside to pay for the project.

Library renovations

In other business, the board also will consider approving further renovation plans for Kent Library, including new flooring and carpet on the third floor, relocation of the computer lab to the third floor and furnishing and reconfiguration of the reference desk area. Those improvements are expected to cost more than $780,000, with much of the money coming from donations and university funds.

Some of the work is expected to be completed by August 2007, officials said. The university hopes to use its own crews to make final improvements such as construction of a student conference room by 2010.

The first phase of the project, completed last spring, included renovation of the second or main floor of the library.

New names

In other action, the regents will consider renaming Southeast's Bootheel education centers at Malden, Kennett and Sikeston to identify them as a part of the university. The new names would all feature the university name, followed in each case by the name of the city where that center is located.

The "higher education center" name would be dropped, school officials said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123