SEMO UNVEILS RENOVATION PLAN; ACADEMIC HALL INCLUDED IN $30 MILLION PROPOSAL

Southeast Missouri State University wants to spend more than $30 million to renovate six campus buildings and construct a technology center in the next five years.

Southeast wants to renovate Academic Hall at a cost of $12.5 million. The project could require president Dr. Dale Nitzschke and other university officials to relocate their offices temporarily to other buildings.

The landmark structure is one of five buildings that the school wants to renovate at the core of the campus. Four of the five -- Academic Hall, Art Building, Serena Building and the Social Science Building -- were constructed in the early 1900s. Memorial Hall was completed in 1950. The Serena Building was enlarged in 1962 and again in 1983.

The sixth building scheduled for renovation is the Grauel Building, which is about 30 years old.

Renovation began this fall on the 94-year-old Social Science Building. State lawmakers appropriated $4.2 million for that project.

Like that project, the other building projects require state funding.

"What should come out of this is seven academic buildings in tip-top shape," said Art Wallhausen, assistant to the school's president.

He said one of the goals of the renovation projects is to turn Academic Hall and the other four buildings on top of the hill into a single, academic complex.

The Board of Regents will consider a tentative construction timetable for the building projects when it meets at 3 p.m. today.

The most optimistic goal is that all of the projects could be completed by June 2001, school officials said.

Academic Hall and a new building to house industrial technology classes are the school's top funding priorities for the next fiscal year.

The university hopes to secure funding for Academic Hall in the 1997 legislative session. In addition to $12.5 million for the Academic Hall project, the university also has lobbied for $5.5 million to build a technology center.

School officials hope Gov. Mel Carnahan will include both projects in his proposed budget for fiscal 1998, which begins July 1.

Renovating Academic Hall is a major project.

The landmark was completed in 1906. The building's over 200 windows and its original slate roof need to be replaced, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast's executive vice president.

The building also needs major electrical and mechanical upgrades, and weatherproofing.

The school plans to construct high-tech classrooms and a computer lab with 30 computers.

Dobbins said renovation of Academic Hall could begin next year and take until fall 2000 to complete.

Once completed, the school intends to move English classes into Academic Hall. Business classes had been held in the building until this semester when the business college moved into the new Robert A. Dempster Hall on the north end of the campus.

School officials said it is important to coordinate all the construction projects.

The Social Science Building is slated to reopen by July 1998. That will free up space in Kent Library that currently houses various academic departments who were displaced by the construction project.

Southeast would move its industrial technology department from the Serena Building to the new technology center once it is built. The Serena Building then would be renovated for other academic uses.

Moving the English department to Academic Hall will provide needed space for other departments in the Grauel Building, said Dobbins.

The university also has space in Pacific Hall, the former apartment building on Pacific Street that previously housed some business classes.

"The university is somewhat fortunate in that we will have transition space," Dobbins said.