REACTION TO SEMO STUDENT CENTER MIXED

Southeast Missouri State University students are divided over a proposal to construct a new student center in the middle of the campus.

Student Government President Jason Lane and a number of other students favor the University Commons project. Other students oppose it.

Southeast's weekly campus newspaper, the Capaha Arrow, on Wednesday editorialized against the proposal to expand and convert Parker Hall into a student center.

Even the university's regents are wrestling with the issue. At its meeting next Wednesday, the board is scheduled to consider raising the general fee by 50 cents a credit hour as part of a phased-in fee hike to fund the University Commons project.

"Right now I would not have any idea how the board will vote," said Regent Sarah Long of Poplar Bluff. "I think each one of us is really trying to digest it," she said.

Long said there doesn't appear to be a consensus among students as to whether a new student center is needed.

David Jenkins, co-editor of the Capaha Arrow, said students aren't sold on the project. "We talked to a lot of students, and they just weren't for it," said Jenkins.

Jenkins said he and others on the Arrow staff also opposed the project.

The $12.5 million project would provide a University Commons that would replace the University Center as the student union. The University Center would be converted into space for a continuing education center and other academic uses.

Jenkins said he and other students believe the university should spend the money on academics such as upgrading the books and periodicals at Kent Library.

"I think if they are going to raise fees they need to raise it for academics, not building a new University Commons," said Jenkins.

In its editorial, the Arrow said: "A new UC is not going to greatly help Southeast compete with other universities, especially with larger schools such as the University of Missouri at Columbia and Southwest Missouri State."

The editorial said students are attracted to Southeast because of its smaller size and lower tuition.

"A new UC is not going to be a magic wand, sprinkling spirit and brining the campus together as a community,' the editorial said.

"Forget the building -- the reasons that more students don't get involved in activities are that many commute a considerable distance or work, or both.

"And resident students who go home on the weekends do so more because they don't feel connected to the Cape Girardeau community than because they don't like the current UC."

The university administration and Student Government leaders say low interest rates make it a good time to issue bonds to finance such a project.

But the Arrow editorialized that the bond payments on a $12.5 million project would still amount to a lot of money "on a building that isn't going to get the job done."

Dr. Dale Nitzschke, Southeast's president, said the campus needs a new student center that can better provide services for commuter students as well as attract more students to live on campus.

"We need to fill up our residence halls and keep them filled," he said.

A majority of Southeast's 8,000 students are commuters. But Nitzschke said Southeast still benefits from having about 2,000 students living on campus.

Nitzschke said the university needs a new student center to compete with other universities that have new or more modern facilities.

The project would free up the University Center at Henderson and Normal so it could be used as a continuing education center.

Southeast is moving to provide continuing education classes for everything from real estate agents to paramedics. The health and leisure department also might move into the University Center. Lane said the University Center also could house the admissions office and a visitors center.

Lane said prospective students who visit Southeast often are unimpressed with the University Center.

"You walk into university commons on a lot of campuses and it is a place of hustle and bustle. It is the place to be," he said. That isn't the case at Southeast, Lane said.

He said a survey of 400 to 500 Southeast students last spring showed support for relocating the student center to a more central point on campus.

The University Center is on the far south end of the campus, away from many of the academic buildings and residence halls.

In the survey, 92 percent of the students said they would use a new student center as much or more than they do the University Center.

Fifty-seven percent supported a fee increase to pay for the project. But among commuter students, barely over half favored a fee hike.

Lane said the survey was conducted by a Pennsylvania firm before any specific building plan was developed.

Commuter student Gordon Walton of Jackson opposes the project. A physical education major, Walton said physical education classes would be moved from Parker to other quarters, possibly in the Scully Building or the University Center. Walton said commuter students won't stay on campus after class even if a new student center is built.

He said the university wants to spend millions of dollars to construct a student center that would be only a block and a half from the University Center. The project would eliminate Parker Pool, leaving Southeast without a campus pool. Walton doesn't want to see the pool removed.

Walton said the proposal to increase the general fee only adds to his opposition to the project.

"If there was no increase at all, I would still be against it," he said.