UNIVERSITY ABANDONS PLAN TO OPERATE YOUTH GYMNASTICS PROGRAM

Southeast Missouri State University has abandoned its plan to operate a gymnastics program for youth, university officials said Wednesday.

Bill Hopkins, Southeast's gymnastics coach, said he decided Tuesday to continue operating his business, Riverside Gymnastics Academy, in a leased building at 45 N. Main in Cape Girardeau rather than replace it with a university-sponsored program. About 400 youngsters participate in the Riverside program.

Hopkins said it was his decision to make because the plan ultimately would have involved his giving up his personal business.

The original plan to set up a gymnastics program at Parker Gymnasium was scrapped because it proved not to be economically feasible, said Hopkins and Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration.

The decision comes only weeks after the Board of Regents, on a 5-1 vote, approved plans for the university to take over operation of the gymnastics program.

Critics of the plan, including Regent Ann Dombrowski who cast the lone dissenting vote at the April 30 meeting argued that the university was, in effect, acquiring a private business operated by Hopkins.

They said the program would compete with private gymnastics ventures in Perryville and Sikeston.

But the university administration, including Athletics Director Richard McDuffie, and the majority of the regents had maintained that the school was not buying a business.

Several regents said Wednesday they believe the whole issue needs to be brought back to the board.

Don Harrison, board president, said that since the regents approved the plan, it would appear board action would be needed to rescind it.

Harrison said the issue could be brought up at the June 8 board meeting, scheduled to be held at the Bootheel Education Center at Malden.

Regent Donald Dickerson of Cape Girardeau said, "I think the board needs to just reassess the whole thing and see where we are."

The gymnastics venture was proposed as a self-sufficient enterprise, with surplus revenue going to help fund the university's athletic programs.

"We accepted the idea and thought it was a good idea," said Regent Mark Pelts of Kennett. But he added, "If some problem emerged that we hadn't thought of, it makes sense to go back to square one and start again."

Dobbins said the major concern involved the cost of modifying Parker Gymnasium to provide safe access for young students outside and a safe venue for spectators inside the gym.

Hopkins said there are few parking spaces in front of Parker and there would be an even greater parking problem in a nearby lot when the proposed business building is constructed.

Hopkins said that his Riverside Gymnastics program involves children as young as 2 years of age, so safety would be a major concern.

Creating a traffic turn-around at the campus facility would have cost $50,000 to $60,000, he said.

In addition to the poor parking situation, Hopkins said there would have been costs involved in meeting government regulations, such as federal handicapped accessibility requirements.

Initially, it had been projected that the program could generate $86,000 in annual gross revenues, with about $30,000 of that going into the university's athletics fund.

In a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon, Dobbins said that "when we fine-tuned the concept, it became apparent that locating the program in Parker would not accomplish our primary objective of contributing substantially to the athletic budget, so we do not intend to pursue it any further."

But Hopkins said he hopes the university might look at establishing such a program in the future. "I think a lot of people looked at it as a business, and I looked at it more as a service," he said.