RIVER CAMPUS WOULD GET $11.95 MILLION

JEFFERSON CITY -- In a boost for Southeast Missouri State University's planned River Campus, an additional $11.95 million in state money for the project has made it into the governor's proposed 2001 Missouri budget.

The university plans to spend about $36 million to turn the former St. Vincent's Seminary in Cape Girardeau into a center for visual and performing arts.

The funds included in Gov. Mel Carnahan's proposed budget, along with $4.6 million in state money allocated last year, will cover the state's portion of funding for the project. The city of Cape Girardeau will also contribute funding to the project.

The River Campus funding is a portion of the $137 million earmarked for capital improvements at Missouri's public colleges and universities.

However, items included in the governor's budget are subject to legislative approval, so the state money won't be assured until the budget bill clears the General Assembly.

Inclusion of the River Campus project in the budget proposal, which was publicly announced Wednesday, came as little surprise. The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, which oversees the state's public institutions of higher education, had identified the project as one of its top four capital improvement priorities for the upcoming budget year.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said the funding request was expected, but until the governor's budget is unveiled one never knows for certain.

"Now we need to keep it in the budget between now and May when the final budget bill is passed," Kinder said. "I'm confident we will be able to do so."

Southeast purchased the historic seminary in 1998. The River Campus will house the university's new fine-arts college.