REGENTS PREPARE TO GO ON THE ROAD

Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents will take to the road this fall.

As part of the university's effort to review and revise its 1996 strategic plan, the board will visit 11 communities to garner public opinion on what the university has done and should be doing for the region.

In drawing up its original plan, the regents held a series of forums around the region. This time, the regents have expanded the forums to include meetings in St. Louis and Jefferson County.

Don Dickerson, board president, was one of the major architects of the 1994 forums.

"I think it was a very good thing for the university to do," he said.

"The first time around, we basically were out there asking them how are we doing and how can we better serve the district?"

This time, Dickerson said, the regents want to know how the public views their recent efforts.

The regents tentatively plan to hold 11 off-campus forums in September. The dates haven't been set, but the locations have.

The regents and the university administration plan to hold public meetings in St. Louis, Hillsboro, Park Hills, Perryville, Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Caruthersville, Kennett and Malden.

The St. Louis meeting would be held at the university's St. Louis outreach office.

Southeast plans to send invitations to various civic and government leaders. The list includes the area's state and federal lawmakers, school superintendents, vocational school directors, community college presidents, service clubs, small businesses, chambers of commerce, mayors, councilmen, county commissioners and university alumni.

The meetings are open to the general public, but Dickerson said the regents want to make certain that they hear from community leaders.

Campus forums also will be held.

Dickerson predicted the university won't have a revised strategic plan in place until spring 2001.

"It will just be a modification. I don't see any drastic changes,' he said.

The original strategic plan included a new emphasis on providing technical training to meet the manufacturing needs of the region. It also called for boosting enrollment to over 10,000 students.

Southeast's fall enrollment has been in the 8,000 range.

Dickerson said the university could handle 10,000 to 11,000 students. "I think that is still a realistic goal and a good goal," he said.

Developing a former Catholic seminary into a River Campus school for the visual and performing arts would free up space on the main campus that would be needed for a larger student population, he said.

Dickerson said Southeast increasingly is providing services to the region like those of a land-grant institution.

The construction of a new Polytechnic Building and development of the River Campus over the next few years should help meet the university's mission to serve the region, he said.

Regent Doyle Privett of Kennett said the university has worked hard in recent years to be more visible in the region.

The school used to be little more than a footnote in Kennett and residents there had few ties to the Cape Girardeau school.

Today, efforts are underway to establish a higher education center, funded in large measure by the city.

Privett said the regents and the university administration will benefit by hearing from people in Kennett, Malden, Caruthersville and other communities.

"We have high hopes," he said.