Southeast to lighten donation threshold for naming honors

Southeast Missouri State University donors don't have to give $3 million to get their names on a River Campus building.

The school has thrown out its original guidelines and is drafting new ones that university president, Dr. Ken Dobbins, said are more realistic.

Southeast is seeking private donations to help turn a former Catholic seminary in Cape Girardeau into a visual and performing arts campus.

Guidelines unveiled last year by officials with the university's fund-raising foundation listed a wealth of naming options, including $6 million to have the entire River Campus arts school named after the donor and $3 million for just the performance hall. Naming options went as low as $10,000 for a dance dressing room and shower.

But Dobbins said Monday those amounts are too high. "They might work in New York, but they are not going to work in Southeast Missouri," he said.

The donation levels are being scaled back under the new guidelines for the River Campus to better reflect the level of donations the university can expect, he said. The new amounts will be presented to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation board of directors in December, Dobbins said.

Bedell donation

The university Board of Regents didn't follow the old guidelines calling for $3 million when it voted Friday to name the planned performance hall after Sikeston businessman Donald C. Bedell, said Don Dickerson, regents president. But he confirmed the amount was substantially more than $1 million.

Bedell's donation was the largest single cash gift in the 18-year history of the university foundation.

Southeast has received some of the money and expects to receive the rest before construction starts in the next several years, Dobbins said.

The university foundation is seeking to raise $10 million toward the $36 million cost of the project, with the state and city providing the rest of the money.

Exact amount undisclosed

Neither Bedell nor school officials would disclose the exact amount of the gift. That's common, particularly when large donations are involved, school officials said. While the university is a tax-funded institution, the foundation is a private entity and isn't subject to the same financial disclosure laws.

Like Dobbins, Dickerson said the foundation's original naming figures were out of line. "I had a feeling at the time that it was a little overly optimistic for our area," said Dickerson.

Dobbins said lowering the donation levels will help the university get more private funding for the project.

Bedell said neither he nor the university raised the naming option in discussions leading up to his donation. He said he was flattered the regents decided to name the performance hall in his honor.

But Bedell said he didn't give the money so he could get his name on a building. Dobbins said donors typically care more about the project they support than garnering publicity.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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