REGENTS WON'T BE LOCKED IN BY PLAN

The Board of Regents won't be locked into a campus master plan for Southeast Missouri State University.

The regents discussed the proposed master plan at a special meeting Friday afternoon with the consultants who drafted it.

The regents suggested they would approve the 20-year plan at the Aug. 30 board meeting, but only as a very broad guideline. They said university officials will have to get board approval to move departments or make any other changes outlined in the plan.

"This is basically a road map for the future," said consultant Kevin King.

But Regent Don Dickerson said, "I think it is too detailed."

Dickerson said he doesn't want the plan to commit the regents to specific uses for campus buildings when future needs might be very different.

"I don't mind it as a guideline," he said.

The plan has been revised since it was first proposed in June.

Dr. Dale Nitzschke, university president, canceled plans to move the Child Study Center from the Scully Building to the little-used and aging Dearmont residence hall.

Dickerson objected to the proposed move when the regents looked at the master plan on June 21.

At that meeting, the regents tabled the proposed plan, insisting they needed time to thoroughly review the document.

The June 21 meeting was the last for Dr. Bill Atchley as university president. Nitzschke took over July 1.

Donald Harrison, board president, said Friday the campus master plan isn't a contract. "It is a living document," he said.

Among other things, the plan calls for moving the English department to Academic Hall once the business classes are moved into the new College of Business building.

Regent Pat Washington questioned why the university would want to move a single academic department into a building that is basically houses administrative offices.

Consultant Becky Zahner said Academic Hall has housed college classes from the beginning. It makes sense to continue with that tradition, she said.

King said Southeast doesn't need all 55,000 square feet of Academic Hall for administrative offices.

The English department would take up nearly a third of the space in Academic Hall, he said.

The master plan envisions that students will make greater use of the shuttle bus system.

But Christie Johnson, the student representative on the Board of Regents, said the current shuttle system is too slow.

She said it takes about 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to go across campus, with several stops along the way.

Washington suggested the university provide some express shuttles in which buses would make fewer stops to speed up the process.

The plan also proposes turning Parker Hall into a student center and making the University Center a conference and visitors center.

But Dickerson maintained the University Center has served well as a student center.

The consultants maintained that the University Center is too far removed from the center of the campus, making it inconvenient for students to use.

The University Center was built with bonds, which are being retired by student fees.

Dickerson questioned if students want to pay for renovations to Parker Hall.

Washington worried that such a move would leave little to anchor the south side of the campus, except for Kent Library.

She suggested it also would leave students more isolated in nearby Myers Hall.