UNIVERSITY BUSINESS BUILDING RANKS FOURTH AMONG STATE PROJECTS

ST. LOUIS -- Southeast Missouri State University's proposed business building ranks fourth among eight new construction projects that the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education has recommended for funding in the 1995 fiscal year.

At a meeting of the Southeast Board of Regents Monday night in St. Louis, university officials said they were pleased with the coordinating board's budget recommendations for the Cape Girardeau school.

"Actually, we have a fairly good spot in the priority list," said Southeast President Kala Stroup.

The top capital improvement project in higher education in the state is a building already under construction at Missouri Southern State College, university officials said.

Stroup said the coordinating board has agreed to recommend expansion of the planned business building as requested by the university in order to provide added classroom space now that the social science building has been shut down.

The coordinating board is recommending more than $16.6 million in capital improvement projects for Southeast. They include $13.87 million for construction of the business building, and $663,400 for remodeling of the Parker Building.

The coordinating board also has recommended more than $1.8 million for maintenance and repair items, as well as $224,500 for renovation of Magill Hall of Science and $35,100 for replacement of utility tunnels.

Stroup said that while 10,000 square feet of space has been added to the business building project, 30,000 square feet of classroom and faculty office space has been removed by the closing of the social science building.

Even the Parker renovation won't make up the difference, she said. "We really have a crisis with classroom space," said Stroup.

As to Southeast's general operations budget, the coordinating board has recommended state funding of $35.2 million for the next fiscal year, an 8.4 percent increase.

In addition, the coordinating board has recommended $580,749 in added funding for the school's nursing program at Three Rivers Community College at Poplar Bluff, the Crisp Bootheel Education Center at Malden and a computerized state of the art classroom at Southeast.

The $200,000 classroom would have special audiovisual and computer equipment. "We had asked for over $1 million in technical support," said Stroup.

"We got $200,000."

She told the regents, "We need a lot more of them for the 21st century. This is basically just a start."

In other business, university Provost Charles Kupchella said Southeast faculty members are now involved in student recruitment efforts. Faculty members have joined with administrative staff in attending college fairs in the region this fall.

"So far the reaction has been very positive," said Kupchella.

The regents said they were pleased with the faculty's assistance.

"We need to dispel the myth that faculty live in an ivory tower," said Regent Lynn Dempster of Sikeston.

In other action, the regents approved changing the name of the Center for Teaching and Learning to the Center for Scholarship and Teaching and Learning.

Kupchella said the intention is to have the faculty more involved in researching methods of teaching and learning.

"One of our biggest challenges is to try to stay close to this front edge of the revolution in teaching and learning," said Kupchella.