SOUTHEAST HAS SPREAD INTO REGION

Mission-enhancement money from the state has helped Southeast Missouri State University reach out to the region through higher-education centers and delivery of courses via interactive television.

It also has aided the university in offering technical education through its new Polytechnic School as well as improving academic programs overall, university officials say.

Southeast is one of three four-year schools in Missouri with a statewide mission to deliver post-secondary technical education in state. By June 30, 2001, Southeast expects to have spent $6 million in state mission-enhancement money over four years for various projects and programs.

Southeast has received $1.48 million a year in mission-enhancement dollars from the state starting in fiscal year 1998. The university expects to receive similar funding in fiscal 2001. That will be the school's last year of mission-enhancement funding as recommended by the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

The mission-enhancement dollars are considered part of a school's base operating budget. As a result, Southeast will continue to hold onto the added funding even after the mission-enhancement cycle ends.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said the mission-enhancement money offered the university a way to fund improvements. "It was a chance to do these new things on a permanent basis," he said.

Even after the funding program has ended, the university will continue to spend some of its operating money on such things as its higher-education centers, Polytechnic programs and Southeast Educational Network or SEE-Net interactive television classes.

"Most of these dollars have to continue to be spent for the purposes that they were given," Wallhausen said.

University officials said Southeast has increased access to higher education in the region. Southeast president Dr. Ken Dobbins said the university couldn't have brought higher education to outlying areas in the region without mission-enhancement dollars. "We looked to provide access to place-bound students in our strategic plan," he said.

Dobbins said the university has done this through area higher-education centers and the delivery of courses through an interactive television network. The interactive television network allows courses to be delivered to classrooms at a number of high schools, community colleges, higher-education centers and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Dobbins said as many as three sites can be linked together for any one session. "We are getting more people in the higher-education system," he said.

Whether the course is taught by Southeast or another institution, the result is the same: It increases the level of education in the region and that translates into a better prepared workforce, Dobbins said.

In the past few years, Southeast and participating colleges have established three new higher-education centers in Sikeston, Kennett and Perry County. They join the university's Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

Southeast plans to open another higher-education center in the northern part of the university's service region with state funding in fiscal 2001. A location hasn't been chosen.

Nearly 1,000 students are enrolled in classes this fall at the Bootheel Education Center in Malden and the Sikeston Area Higher Education Center. The classes are offered by Southeast and Three Rivers Community College at Poplar Bluff.

The new Kennett center has 185 students enrolled in classes offered by Southeast and Three Rivers. Another 126 students are enrolled in courses offered by Southeast and Mineral Area College at the Perry County center near Perryville.

"We know that because of family obligations, jobs and for other reasons, many people who need degrees cannot leave the area to attend distant colleges and universities," Wallhausen said.

The university also has used mission-enhancement dollars to establish Southeast P.M., which offers seven degree programs that students can complete by taking night and weekend classes exclusively.

Dobbins said the state aid has allowed the university to implement its 3-year-old strategic plan. "Without mission-enhancement money, we would not have been able to implement the strategic plan in the manner we did," said Dobbins. "We would have had to cut some of the programs we have now or increase student fees to do it."

Southeast's Board of Regents adopted the strategic plan in 1996.

"The timing was great," said Dobbins. The coordinating board was preparing to launch mission-enhancement funding for the state's public colleges and universities.

After Southeast's mission-enhancement funding cycle comes to an end, the coordinating board will review what the university has done with the money. Dobbins said a new round of mission-enhancement money might come Southeast's way in the future.

Southeast is looking to come up with new mission-enhancement goals. Dobbins said that is one reason to upgrade the university's strategic plan.