River Campus turns 10: Vision persisted despite many hurdles

Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus turns 10 years old this year. But opening the visual and performing-arts campus took almost as long.

The $50 million project was beset by funding difficulties and lawsuits.

But none of that deterred the vision of now-retired Cape Girardeau lawyer Don Dickerson.

As president of the Board of Regents in the late 1990s, Dickerson had the idea to turn the site of a former Catholic seminary overlooking the Mississippi River into an arts school.

"I thought it was one of the prettiest sights on the river," he recalled recently.

The Robert F. and Gertrude L. Shuck Recital Hall during construction.Aaron Eisenhauer

Dickerson said then-university president Dale Nitzschke and his fellow regents embraced the vision of a riverfront campus. So, too, did Ken Dobbins, then vice president of finance and administration at Southeast and later the school's president.

The university bought the property in 1998 as a result of an $800,000 donation by the late B.W. Harrison, a local businessman.

The donation sparked a fundraising effort that garnered about $13 million in private donations, the largest amount raised for a single project at the university, Dobbins said when the River Campus opened in 2007.

Creation of the campus also depended on securing state, city and even federal funding, Dobbins said recently. It took years to secure all the necessary state funding.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "the economy and (state) appropriations went south on us," Dobbins recalled.

Catie Myers of Jackson looks out of one of the 1843 bell-tower windows at the old St. Vincent Seminary that was being renovated as part of Southeast Missouri State University's new River Campus. Myers was one of two students who took hundreds of photographs for the university's historic preservation before the renovation of the building began.Diane L. Wilson

The River Campus project could have collapsed at two or three points, he said.

Plans called for a 950-seat Bedell Performance Hall, but the Board of Regents wanted seating for 1,200 to reduce the ticket cost for touring shows and concerts, Dobbins said.

"It would have cost $6 million for the added seats," he said.

Dobbins said he came up with an economical solution. Rather than expand seating, the university agreed to budget $150,000 a year to "buy down" tickets, Dobbins said.

Southeast subsidizes the cost for major productions to keep ticket prices affordable for the public, according to Dobbins.

Obtaining state tax credits was critical to securing major donations to the project, Dobbins said. Without such donations, the project could have folded, he said.

The project benefited from smaller donations, too.

"We got a lot of $5,000 donations," Dobbins remembered.

The city kicked in funding as well.

In November 1998, Cape Girardeau residents approved an $8.9 million bond issue to help fund the university's new campus for visual and performing arts.

But the project faced roadblocks to state and local funding.

State lawmakers appropriated and re-appropriated millions of dollars for the River Campus arts school over a seven-year period, sparking a political firestorm at the state Capitol after opponents complained the university issued bonds to proceed with the project before the state funding was in place.

Peter Kinder, then head of the state Senate, supported the bond plan and helped make sure the project moved ahead.

Dickerson lobbied for the needed state funding time and time again.

"It didn't hurt to be a lawyer. It didn't hurt to be a salesman, too," he said, adding his friendship with then-governor Mel Carnahan helped.

The project was hampered at the local level by four lawsuits, challenging the legality of a voter-approved restaurant and hotel tax to pay off bonds funding the city's share of the project.

But in 2003, the legal challenges brought by then-motel and restaurant owner Jim Drury finally were settled. The settlement between Drury and the city culminated nearly two years of discussions, initiated by then-Mayor Jay Knudtson.

The former mayor said the city was "embroiled in a terribly toxic lawsuit."

Knudtson recalled having more than 30 meetings, golf outings and barbecues with Drury to work out a solution.

Knudtson said Dobbins told him he was "wasting" his time meeting with Drury.

But in the end, an agreement was reached about future use of hotel and restaurant tax money.

Drury died in 2008.

Knudtson said he is glad Drury lived long enough to see "the benefit" of the River Campus to the community.

"I am proud of being a part of bringing it to Cape," Knudtson said

He said initially, he had "some doubts" about the effect the River Campus would have on the community. But he said he has no doubts now.

"It has absolutely exceeded all expectations," he said.

Knudtson said the River Campus represents "no better example of a collaborative effort."

Dickerson and Dobbins said the decision to buy the old seminary property from the Congregation of the Mission or Vincentian Fathers benefited the university while saving part of the community's history and Catholic heritage.

Some of the campus architecture was preserved as part of the project.

"We wanted to make sure the Vincentians were recognized throughout the campus," Dobbins said.

Dobbins compared the River Campus project to the "Field of Dreams" movie, where a baseball field is constructed in the middle of a cornfield and ends up being a major attraction.

Dickerson said the River Campus has become a major drawing card for the university and Cape Girardeau.

"It turned out to be better than my expectations," he said.

Dickerson remembered walking across the vacant Catholic campus before the River Campus arts school became a reality.

At the time, Southeast had declining enrollment. The opening of the River Campus helped boost enrollment, drawing students from across the country to the performing and visual arts curriculum, Dickerson said.

He said he never stopped talking about the project, even when funding seemed to be in jeopardy.

"I kept the dream alive until it became a reality," Dickerson said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

518 S. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.