SEMO PREPARES FOR RIVER CAMPUS

Southeast Missouri State University wants to hire more visual and performing arts faculty as it proceeds with development of its River Campus.

University officials are looking at adding a dean in 2002 to administer its school for the visual and performing arts. The new school would include the art, theater, music and dance departments.

It would be housed on the River Campus, along with a new university museum. Southeast plans to develop a former Catholic seminary in Cape Girardeau into its River Campus.

Dr. Martin Jones, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, told the River Campus Board of Managers Friday that plans are being made to hire several new faculty, including a sculptor, full-time art historian and a theater costume designer.

Southeast also will need to hire a curator for the university museum, Jones said. The curator would manage exhibits and work under Museum Director Stanley Grand.

The university also would have to hire a facilities manager for the River Campus to coordinate the use of the 1,000-seat performance hall and other public venues on the grounds.

Jones offered no definite timetable for the administrative reorganization of the new arts school, but said he hopes it will take place "reasonably soon." Some of the new positions wouldn't be filled for several years, he said.

Jones said faculty in the visual and performing arts worry whether the $36 million project will include enough classroom, rehearsal and recital space.

"We are going to have to look carefully at how the space is used," he said.

Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president of administration and enrollment management, said some faculty in other departments fear that the River Campus project will leave less money for their departments.

Fox said such sentiment is natural when it comes to such projects. "I think that is common," she said.

Jones said the project stresses the university's commitment to being a "liberal arts school."

University planning for the project continues despite a lawsuit by Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury. The city has appealed a trial judge's ruling last year that has held up funding for the River Campus project.

In October, Associate Circuit Judge Robert Stillwell of Fredericktown, Mo., struck down a Cape Girardeau city law that provided for the expansion and extension of a motel-restaurant tax to fund the city's share of the cost of developing the River Campus.

Without the city funding, the university can't tap into $16.5 million in state funding. It also has made it more difficult to secure private donations.

Still, the university continues to look at new arts programs for students and the general public, such as an arts subscription series.