Southeast Missouri State planning 150th birthday, eclipse to mark conclusion

Southeast Missouri State University is gearing up for its sesquicentennial next year with a yearlong series of events set to launch on the institution's 150th birthday, March 22, 2023.

Details are incomplete at present but SEMO's university communications office said Thursday the celebratory year will conclude with the anticipated total solar eclipse April 8, 2024, when Cape Girardeau will be in the center of totality.

The path of total eclipse, where the moon will cover the sun completely, will run from Mexico, to Texas through Maine and north into Ontario and Newfoundland, Canada.

It is the first total solar eclipse in the U.S. since summer 2017.

Carlos Vargas, SEMO's president since July 2015, last week told the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's business leadership series, the institution had five faculty and nearly 60 students when it launched in 1873.

Today, Vargas said, the institution cumulatively has more than 1,000 full-time and part-time faculty and 10,000 students "from nearly every U.S. state."

Michelle Queiser, communications specialist at SEMO, said Vargas has established a sesquicentennial steering committee to plan events to mark SEMO's milestone year.