New center for alumni at SEMO taking shape

Southeast Missouri State University will break ground Feb. 16 on a new $1 million alumni center that won't cost taxpayers a dime.

The two-level, white stucco and glass building will be financed with private donations and constructed just southeast of Wildwood, once the official residence of school presidents and now a reception hall and guest house.

School officials want the building to be completed by Oct. 19, the date of the university's Homecoming celebration. A contractor still must be hired, but the university plans to move ahead with the project.

School officials will hold a groundbreaking ceremony in a heated tent on Feb. 16.

The new 7,400-square-foot building will have a stucco exterior to blend in with the Wildwood home. At the same time, it has a modern look, said Tom Hadler, the university's in-house architect who designed the structure.

The new building will be named the Aleen Vogel Wehking Alumni Center after its major benefactor. The late Aleen Wehking willed $645,000 for the project. Earl and Marjorie Holland of Fort Myers, Fla., were the other major contributors, donating $300,000.

Steve Brazil, past president of the school's National Alumni Council, said private funding is key to the project. "It is not something the university is going to have to fund and put on the taxpayers' backs," he said.

The structure will house the offices of alumni services and the fund-raising university foundation, which are currently located on Sprigg Street in front of the Show Me Center. The building formerly was used to assist migrant workers.

Alan Zacharias, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, said the new building will be more functional.

"We are not going to net that much more space, but it is more usable space," he said.

Space for campus needs

The existing location has no place to greet visitors or hold receptions. It has little meeting space. The university's National Alumni Council and the foundation board of directors have to meet elsewhere on campus.

The new building will have room for up to 14 offices as well as a meeting room, an area honoring noted alumni and an outdoor pavilion.

The new center will open up the Sprigg Street building for other uses. The university's athletics director and coaches, now housed in cramped quarters in Houck Field House, may move into the building.

Another possibility is to relocate KRCU radio offices and studios to the building. The Public Radio affiliate station currently is located across campus on Henderson Street.

"There is a definite need for space on campus," said Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president of administration and enrollment management.

Zacharias and other school officials say the new alumni center should boost alumni services and fund raising.

"The university has long needed a place that alumni can claim as their own," said Zacharias.

Jane Stacy, the ex-wife of a former university president, once lived at Wildwood. She likes the setting. "I am very thrilled with it," she said.

Stacy, the former alumni director and now director of development for the university, has worked out of several different campus buildings since 1973.

The university back then didn't have a fund-raising foundation, and alumni services were housed in a single room in Academic Hall, she said.

The new center will help alumni "reconnect" with the campus, said Stacy.

Including the trees

It will be built on a slope in a tree-shaded area. Visitors will enter on the upper or main level.

Hadler, the project architect, said the trees will be preserved. "We are going to put it behind a large row of trees," he said. "That was pretty important to a lot of people."

Current plans call for a skylight along the spine of the roof, provided it's within the budget, school officials said.

The building will be served by an existing, 37-space parking lot along Greek Drive. A footbridge will be built across a ravine so people can walk from the parking lot to the building. Handicapped parking will be provided in front of the westward-facing center.

The school's Board of Regents approved the project in December 2000 before there was even a final design.

School officials considered adding onto Wildwood but decided against it, partly because of concern that construction work could damage the historic structure. The oldest part of the house dates to the late 1800s, local historians say.

Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast president, lives off campus but entertains at Wildwood. The old house will continue to be used for such functions even after the alumni center is built, school officials said.

Wildwood's separate garage will be torn down as part of the alumni center project.

School officials had planned for construction last spring, but delayed the project while the university searched for a new fund-raising vice president. School officials said they wanted the new fund-raiser to have input into the building's design.

In August, the regents hired Zacharias. He replaced Wayne Davenport, who resigned to accept a position at Cleveland State University in Ohio.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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