TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: NEW DEGREES, NEW FACILITY GIVE SOUTHEAST STUDENTS NEW OPPORTUNITIES

A remote control video camera can follow an instructor for broadcasting courses.

A touch pad controls all aspects of the room including lighting, video and computer equipment.

Professor David Kunz uses the computer in his office to prepare lessons and has a homepage on the Internet that contains course material.

Getting down to business has gotten a lot more interesting at Southeast Missouri State University.

A year-old building with state-of-the-art technology and new degree programs mean new opportunities for students to get real-world and academic experience, said Dr. Gerald McDougall, dean of the Donald L. Harrison College of Business.

The university is awaiting approval from the Coordinating Board for Higher Education on the new international business degree program, said Dr. Ken Heischmidt, director of the university's international business and MBA programs.

The review process is "in the very final stages," Heischmidt said. "We expect it to be 100 percent online by mid-October."

The program packages business, culture and foreign language classes, he said.

"We expect maybe 100 students in this major in four years. In my opinion, it will probably be a 50-50 split between domestic students and international students," Heischmidt said.

Much of the interest seems to center on Asian and Latin American nations, he said.

The university surveyed high school and university students, businesses and counselors about developing the program, Heischmidt said.

"All of the groups said we should really have it going," he said.

The university's new business minor also becomes available this fall, he said.

Designed for non-business majors, the program complements a number of degrees, Heischmidt said, including foreign language, agriculture and computer science.

"It gives them one-up for employment when they get their degree done," he said.

One advantage of the business minor is that it allows students who don't have business degrees to go directly into the university's MBA program, he said.

The MBA program began last fall, and 93 students are now enrolled in it, Heischmidt said.

"Over half" of the MBA students are Southeast graduates, he said, and about 25 percent are students who don't have undergraduate degrees in business and who have to complete a number of prerequisite courses -- those offered in the business minor -- before beginning the graduate program.

The MBA program is "going great guns," said Dr. Sheila Caskey, dean of graduate studies.

Robert A. Dempster Hall, which opened last September, houses a variety of technology to "provide a very rich environment for students."

In addition to informational resources available via computer and the Internet, the facility also includes live satellite broadcast capability, which means students can watch broadcasts or classes can be broadcast to other sites to share instruction, McDougall said.

"We can teach a class to 45 students here and broadcast it out to different sites and take that class out to Three Rivers, the Bootheel Center, perhaps Mineral Area College," he said.

Dempster Hall's construction cost was $15.3 million, including $3 million for technology.