Southeast expects to finish new dorm by July 1

With large windows looking onto the field at Houck Stadium, Southeast Missouri State University students will be able to watch games and practices while doing laundry, studying or hanging out in the student lounge of the new residence hall.

University officials said they hope the new dorm will help connect students to campus activities, but it also includes a newer educational component: learning communities.

Workers are finishing the dorm, which will incorporate academic-focused activities into its programming. The $23.7 million hall is being built at the corner of Henderson Avenue and Broadway near the university's main entrance. Bruce Skinner, director of residence life, said the building is on schedule for completion July 1.

The main wing of the L-shaped building overlooks Houck Stadium. The bottom level has a kitchen, student lounge and laundry area. It includes a locker room for Southeast soccer and football players, which is not connected to the residence hall.

"It's really its own building within a building because they have different functions," Skinner said.

Bruce Skinner, residence life director, stands inside a dorm room on the third floor of the new residence hall next to Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

Christine Nye, the dorm's hall director, said residence life staff has been working for about a year to develop new the learning communities. The programs include activities for business, visual and performing arts, service learning, science, construction management and interior design students.

Vandiver Hall, which is next to the new dorm, also has similar programs for education, honors and transfer students. Those existing programs will also be more structured, Skinner said.

Nye said the programs will provide a link to what students are doing in their classes and can act as a precursor to internship experience.

"Eventually, when they leave here, they're going to be better professionals," she said.

Skinner said the the learning communities will incorporate activities outside the dorm, faculty visits and local speakers.

"Rather than order pizza and talk about why we want to be teachers, let's pay a superintendent or principal to come in," he said.

The new dorm has one large study room and five mini lounges per floor. Each suite includes two 180-square-foot bedrooms with a sink. The suites, which accommodate four students, have shared bathroom accommodations.

The hall will provide housing for about 300 students. Skinner said about half of the students staying there next year will be freshmen and the other half will be returning students. The dorm's rate is $2,714 per semester, which equals Vandiver Hall, the newest dorm on campus, he said.

The dorm's main floor has a dining area and 24-hour computer lab, available to all students. In December, the university will increase its technology fee by $10 to $50 to accommodate the new lab.

Skinner said the new hall will bring more options to the south campus area to balance out dining and technology options on north campus.

"It's still not perfect, but it's better than what we had," he said.

Earlier this month, the university started demolishing buildings on Broadway across from the new hall to put in a 122-space parking lot for the dorm. It is part of a $2 million project to add university parking along Broadway.

The university will move $800,000 of furniture into the dorm July 15, including microwaves, televisions, mattresses and couches. Skinner said the patio area and landscaping will be complete by Aug. 1 and resident advisers will move in Aug. 5.

abusch@semissourian.com

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