SOUTHEAST P.M.: THE BENEFITS OF NIGHT SCHOOL

Southeast P.M. provides working adults with an opportunity to pursue an undergraduate degree at night.

Brett Yount heads the keyboard department at Shivelbine's Music Store.

Nineteen eighty-nine was a year of decision for Brett Yount of Cape Girardeau. He got married, decided to devote more time to his music career and dropped out of college.

With his job at Shivelbine's he could continue to play keyboard in the popular band Horizon, which was playing a heavy schedule of three or four nights a week.

At Southeast Missouri State University, Yount had 116 hours towards a degree in marketing but was "burned out" on school.

He was young and somewhat directionless. Playing in the band meant he didn't have to worry about money for college. It pretty much paid his tuition.

He quit school with the typical excuse, "I'm just taking a semester off."

A semester became "just the year off" and "I'll go back later" until this fall when he enrolled in the Southeast P.M. program.

Over the years he's lamented how he wanted to go back and finish the eight credits to earn his degree. He wanted to go back to better himself and to finish what he had started.

Then last summer, his wife, Angie, showed him an advertisement about Southeast's night degree programs and urged him to register.

Yount had a million excuses for not going back to school, but it was with his wife's persistence he enrolled.

Southeast P.M., started slightly more than two years ago when several daytime classes were moved to night classes.

Now, seven degree programs are offered at night.

Joyce Becker, named director of continuing education in September, explained that the program was started after the school surveyed students to learn if there was an interest in a degree program offered at night.

Surveys showed a lot of interest, she said, and the feedback from the faculty members teaching at night has been "wonderful."

Southeast P.M. offers degree programs in criminal justice, general studies, industrial technology, management, mass communication and sociology.

"Southeast P.M. is designed for working adults (age 21 and older) who need to remain employed while seeking to upgrade their skills and knowledge," says a flyer about the program.

Becker, who was named the program's interim director in February, thinks the program's enrollment has grown from last spring's 227 students.

Students can enroll by telephone or through other methods traditional students enroll. The P.M. students also have advisers and can receive financial aid.

For example, Yount applied for a Pell grant and received enough financial aid to pay for the classes.

Southeast P.M.'s goal since spring 1997 has been to develop a complete undergraduate degree program, Becker said. That means making sure all the general education prerequisites and other courses needed for the degree are given at night.

Yount said Southeast made it easy to get into the program. The university worked with him, knew of his work conditions and was quite helpful.

Yount, the only child of Homer and Hazel Yount, moved here with his family from Albany, Ga., when he was 5. His father was in the Navy at the time.

Yount later graduated from Cape Central before entering Southeast in 1984.

At Southeast, he played in the Golden Eagles Marching Band, sang in the university choir and played in the jazz band.

When he was in college, he said he had a lot of fun, and if something more tempting than school came up, his studies were put off.

So for Yount, the night program seems to fit quite well. He enrolled in a senior-level criminal justice class that he attends on Tuesday nights.

So far, he said, he has found the class extremely interesting, and he is enjoying being back in school.

Becker said she hopes to add more programs to Southeast P.M. and has set a personal goal of adding at least two more programs by next fall.

Yount has made school his priority, and he hopes to take a course a semester, earning a general studies degree by December 1999.

He joked that he wanted the degree before the millennium. After he gets his general studies degree, he will pursue his marketing degree. Angie might go back to school later also.

For Yount, 32, his job has taken on more responsibility. He is in charge of Shivelbine's keyboard department, which sells three major lines of keyboards.

The department also sells keyboards that can be hooked up to computers to teach children piano and keyboarding.

Through the Musical Instrument Digital Interface or MIDI program, Yount has helped schools combine computers and keyboards for use in their music programs.

Yount and Angie have two children, Paige, 6, and Benjamin, 3. Yount said Paige is in first grade and has played the keyboard since she was 3. Benjamin is just getting interested in keyboards.

Yount began playing organ when he was 3 and had begun taking lessons when he was 7. He also plays clarinet and oboe and some flute and saxophone.

Along with his extra responsibility at Shivelbine's, he plays in the band Trademark two or three times a week and plays piano on Thursday nights at the Royal N'Orleans restaurant.

Some of the band's travels take it to Poplar Bluff, Tunica, Miss., and St. Louis. He says the casino work, like at Tunica, really pays well.

Yount said he studies during the evenings after his wife and children go to bed -- after 9:30 -- and after performances when he is too keyed up to sleep.

"I've always been able to go on four or five hours of sleep," he said.

Becker said non-traditional students bring a refreshing attitude to class. Usually, they have their work done, are outspoken and participate in class discussions.

What Yount liked about the P.M. program was that it didn't treat him like a kid.

Yount said the majority of students in his class are adults who are going back to school.

"If you're thinking about going back to school, just go ahead and do it," he said.

It's worked for him, as school has taken on a new aspect in his life. He's set a goal, and it's important to him to finish what he started.

"I'm kind of fired up like a freshman again," he said. "I look forward to going to class."