REGENTS CONSIDER ARCHITECTS

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Two architectural firms will present design proposals for a new College of Business Administration building at a special meeting Friday of the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents.

The meeting comes as the university is gearing up for the start of spring-semester classes Monday.

New students can move into the dormitories from 3 to 4 p.m. today, 8 to 8:30 a.m. and 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, and noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The residence halls will re-open for all students at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Representatives of the two St. Louis architectural firms, Sverdrup Corporation and Hastings & Chivetta Architects Inc., are scheduled to make their presentations during an open session of the board.

Hastings and Chivetta designed the Show Me Center on the Southeast campus.

Friday's meeting will be held in the Party Room of the University Center, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The business school project is the only item on the agenda, said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast.

Wallhausen said the two architectural firms were chosen by a university screening committee comprised of Southeast President Kala Stroup, Provost Leslie Cochran, Executive Vice President Robert Foster, business school Dean Richard Schmidt and university planner Jens Brammer.

The screening committee received written proposals from 22 architectural firms last fall. The list was then narrowed to five finalists, who made oral presentations to the screening committee last month.

The regents are expected to choose between the two firms recommended by the screening committee, said Wallhausen.

The university has received state funding of $100,000 for planning work for the proposed building.

As part of its $25 million "New Vision of Excellence" capital campaign, the University Foundation is seeking $2.4 million in private gifts to supplement the cost of construction.

The bulk of the construction funding is expected to come from the state. The proposed, 130,000 square foot structure is expected to cost an estimated $14.8 million.

Part of the design work will involve looking at possible sites for the new building.

University officials have talked of erecting the business school at a campus site north of the Scully Building and near the Henderson-New Madrid intersection.

But Wallhausen said no specific site has been chosen yet. "I think part of the design (work) is for the architect to look at possible sites."

Wallhausen said there is no timetable for construction of the business building. "I think any timetable would have to have a big question mark in it as to availability of funds."

While university officials would like to see construction funding included in the 1991-92 fiscal year budget, Wallhausen said tight state finances could delay such funding.

"I think everyone assumes that the news is going to be gloomy from Jefferson City," he observed. "I would say that the climate for major new capital dollars next (fiscal) year is probably not very good."

Southeast officials have said the new business school is the most critical need of the university for the 1990s because business programs at Southeast have grown so rapidly over the past decade.

There are now more than 1,500 declared business majors, compared to 700 in 1980.

Classroom and faculty office needs have been addressed on a temporary basis, but the college's six departments remain scattered across campus in four different locations, Wallhausen said.

"The building is desperately needed by the College of Business," said Wallhausen, "if we are going to go ahead with accreditation by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business."

Wallhausen said that due to crowded conditions, many faculty members in the business college lack adequate office space and the privacy needed for counseling students and performing scholarly activities.