Southeast students move back into residence halls Thursday

Bringing carloads of items from clothes to computers, more than 1,100 freshmen and transfer students are scheduled to move into Southeast Missouri State University residence halls Thursday.

More than 600 student and staff volunteers will help haul in the mountain of belongings.

Today's students are showing up with a lot of electronic equipment, so much so the university is talking about the possibility of purchasing larger dorm-room desks to hold it all.

"A couple of years ago students would bring a 13-inch television and a computer. Now they bring a 25- to 32-inch television, a computer with a big monitor, a printer, a digital camera, a PlayStation and a DVD player," said Bruce Skinner, associate director of residence life.

Student Matthew Haug of Bonne Terre, Mo., has no shortage of belongings he plans to bring to campus. They include his television, a refrigerator, XBox, laptop, MP3 player and stereo.

Still, he's sure that even all of those items won't make his dorm room seem like home.

"I want it to be comfortable, but I don't want to be reminded of home because I don't want to get homesick," he said.

Thursday's move-in day -- some students are expected to move in as early as 6 a.m. -- is just the start of the population boom. By the end of the weekend, some 1,200 returning students are expected back in the residence halls.

Fall semester classes begin Monday.

Southeast will have about 2,300 students living in campus residence halls this fall, school officials said.

That's about the same as a year ago, said Bruce Skinner, associate director of Southeast's office of residence life.

"We are actually slightly down in first-year students and slightly up in returning students," he said.

Southeast's total enrollment is expected to hover around the 10,000 mark. It could be down slightly from last year's record of 10,292 graduate and undergraduate students, school officials said.

But Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management, said enrollment should vary only slightly from a year ago.

"It looks like it will be close to last fall. We will definitely be up in the 10,000 range," he said.

Students will find a renovated Beanery, a cafe in the University Center that serves Starbucks coffee and will now feature gourmet sandwiches.

"It has a very nice, warm coffee-house atmosphere," Holt said.

On Tuesday, workers were putting the finishing touches on the Beanery, bringing in equipment such as a coffee grinder.

Most of the students living on campus will be housed in air-conditioned rooms.

But about 300 students once again will be housed in the aging Dearmont Residence Hall. The rooms in that building don't have air conditioning, although the student lounges are air conditioned. Students bring electric fans to cool their rooms.

Skinner said school officials plan to look at the possibility of air conditioning the building.

Those that sign up for Dearmont housing do so for two reasons: lower room charges and the fact that the residence hall is near the center of campus, Skinner said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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