SOUTHEAST WANTS 10,300 BY 2000 (FIRST IN A SERIES)

Southeast Missouri State University wants to increase enrollment by nearly 2,000 students by the year 2000.

Enrollment stood at 8,100 last fall. The school wants to have 10,300 students enrolled by the 2000 fall semester.

The increase would come in the number of commuter students. School officials envision the number of students living on campus will remain at about 2,000.

To boost enrollment, Southeast will have to become more relevant and accessible to the region, school officials say.

The university plans to address those issues as part of a sweeping, five-year strategic plan approved by the Board of Regents Thursday. The plan covers virtually every aspect of the university, spread across six categories: curriculum, enrollment, information technology, service to the region, campus operations, and physical facilities.

Each of the school's 56 units or departments will have its own plans that will be geared toward meeting goals of the university's strategic plan.

To boost enrollment, Southeast plans to offer evening and weekend classes and attract more transfer students from community colleges. It also plans to offer more two-year programs, including one in physical therapy.

Last fall there were 1,900 new students enrolled, which included 556 transfer students. By fall 2000, Southeast expects to enroll 2,200 new students, including nearly 690 transfer students.

Nationwide, only about a third of community college students go on to pursue a four-year degree.

Southeast wants to attract more international and minority students. By 2000, the school wants international students to make up 4 percent of its student body, up from the current 3 percent.

It wants to boost minority enrollment from about 6 percent to nearly 10 percent.

The school wants to improve student retention and graduation rates to meet state requirements for moderately selective institutions.

Southeast's student retention rate among freshmen has improved in recent years to around 72 percent. The university wants to improve retention so that at least 75 percent of entering freshmen will return to school the next fall.

Southeast also must improve its graduation rate from around 36 percent to 55 percent, said Dr. SueAnn Strom, student affairs vice president. Southeast hopes to reach the 55 percent rate by 2000. The goal is to have at least 55 percent of beginning freshmen graduate within six years after they enter Southeast."The real tough work is out in front of us," Strom said.

Strom said the school doesn't have the physical facilities to serve more than about 10,000 students.

Dr. Charles Kupchella, provost, headed up the planning effort.

Southeast last year began developing program-to-program agreements with about a dozen community colleges in Southeast Missouri and surrounding states. Kupchella said the agreements will allow students to take their first two years of classes at a community college and have those classes count toward a degree at Southeast. The students can then transfer to Southeast for their final two years of classes to obtain their undergraduate degrees."We intend to become the transfer college of choice for community college students," Kupchella said.

School officials and faculty said they don't want Southeast to be too large or too small in terms of enrollment. They said 10,000 students would be an optimum size. It would still allow for relatively small class sizes instead of lecture halls full of 500 students.

Terry Sutton, Faculty Senate chairman, said increased enrollment would benefit faculty in class offerings and could result in higher salaries.

With higher enrollment, fewer classes would be dropped, Sutton said."More students would mean more tuition for the university and hopefully larger salary increases," he said.

Kupchella said Southeast and other colleges can no longer go it alone; they must work together in partnerships.

Southeast's strategic plan envisions cooperative efforts with community colleges, vocational-technical schools and the business community.

University officials said the strategic plan will be routinely revised to meet the changing needs of the region."Strategic planning is not something you do once and put on a shelf," Kupchella said."It is nothing like the old five-year plan that they used to do in the Soviet Union," he said."We can't know what the world will look like five or 10 years from now," the provost said. "We will continue to adjust to whatever the reality of the world is."Sunday: A look at Southeast Missouri State University's plans for night school.