SEMO program trains custodians of history

Students in the historic preservation program at Southeast Missouri State University learn about history in the form of buildings, monuments or museum artifacts.

But many graduates think some of the other training in the program has been just as valuable in their careers.

Carla Jordan, who graduated from the program in 2004, is director of the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum in Altenburg, Mo., and operates a firm that promotes the preservation and documentation of the history of rural areas.

"The program teaches how to work with local government and also state and federal government to save things," Jordan said. "The program taught me how to write national historical register nominations."

Dr. Steven J. Hoffman, coordinator of the Historic Preservation Program, said the educators who launched the program 30 years ago wanted to include courses that gave students practical experience in historic preservation.

"All of our classes have a hands-on component," said Hoffman, who joined the department in 1995. "We don't just read about it and talk about in the classroom, we go out in the field and we practice it."

Hoffman said that when graduates of the Southeast program get asked in a job interview if they can do a particular task, they can answer "of course I can do that for you, I've already done it."

Hoffman estimates that within a year of graduation about 75 percent of the students have either gone on to graduate school or gotten a job in historic preservation.

More than 200 students who have graduated with bachelor's degrees from the program since its inception.

While the program has a core that focuses on the preservation of the built environment, Hoffman said, it includes courses that focus on stewardship. He said that Dr. Art Mattingly and Dr. Frank Nickell, two of the teachers who set up the program, "had a very broad vision, and I think we've been able to build on that and to sustain that."

According to Hoffman, Southeast is one of only seven or eight universities that offer undergraduate degrees in historic preservation.

Hoffman shares teaching responsibilities in the department with Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff, Dr. Eric Clements and Dr. Joel Rhodes. Students learn about preservation and can also take courses in museum studies, site administration and archives.

Hoffman said several graduates are in state historic preservation offices throughout the country. One is curator of the National Winston Churchill Museum at Fulton, Mo., while another works as an exhibit designer at the Missouri Historical Society Museum in St. Louis. Other graduates of the program are working as site administrators and archivists.

Brian McCutchen, who received his bachelor's degree in historic preservation from Southeast in 1992 and a master's in history with emphasis on historic preservation in 1995, has worked with the National Park Service since his graduation. He is now superintendent of the George Rogers Clark National Park in Vincennes, Ind.

While a historic preservation degree isn't a requirement to be a park superintendent, McCutchen said it was his experience in that field that helped him make his mark with the National Park Service.

After an internship as a Southeast undergraduate at the Shiloh National Military Park in Shiloh, Tenn., McCutchen became a ranger at the park in 1993 and was responsible for monitoring and preserving Shiloh's monuments, memorials, historic structures. He held several posts with the park service as ranger, historian and site superintendent before accepting the position in Indiana.

"My preservation background is largely what got me selected," McCutchen said about his position.

McCutchen said that his historic preservation education at Southeast "truly was the seed that started my career."

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